


Date night at Grillby's

by Ghiragar



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Abandonment of Children, F/F, F/M, Karaoke, M/M, Motherhood, No Drama, Past Abuse, Past Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Post-Pacifist Route, Sans is actually doing ok, Snuggling and Kissing, Soul Sex, apparently Undyne and Ugly can't be cousins so canon divergence, baby monsters, it deepened into an adult relationship, light cursing, non-con marked so it can be avoided, oh they have a cat, past abandoment referenced, slight feels occasionally, slowburn, some drinking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-21
Updated: 2017-07-28
Packaged: 2018-05-28 01:24:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 59
Words: 265,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6308773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghiragar/pseuds/Ghiragar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone is at the surface and Sans thinks Papyrus has been working too hard. San's has got his act together, and comes together with Undyne, Toriel, and Alphys to try to get Papyrus to loosen up.  But will Sans get swept away in the fun? A certain fiery bartender hopes he can confess his feelings before one of these dates gets too serious.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In which Papyrus has too many jobs

CHAPTER 1- In need of a break

A cat. Why did they have a cat again? As Sans felt the giant orange sausage shaped ball of fur waddle onto him he was pretty sure that if he ignored it he could still fall back asleep. And just as he started to pull the bed sheet back over his head the cat’s two front legs slipped into his eyesockets.

“Wreooow. Wreeoooowwww,” his new alarm clock repeated ad infinitum until Sans picked him up and rolled out of bed.

Sans stumbled out his bedroom door, extracted cat in tow. Gingerly petting the cat and getting out the food he looked at the numbers on the kitchen clock, which read 6:00 AM, ugh.

Getting the cat had been a bit of a surprise, but when Grillby had found the thing out back by the dumpster late last Friday the furball had immediately taken a liking to Sans. As soon as Grillby let it out of his arms, the cat jumped up onto the counter tried to sit next to/on San’s sleeping head, a behavior that sadly continued to this day.

After half of a very stressful day of the cat jumping onto the bar and waddling into the drinks, Grillby was informed that it violated human health codes to keep a cat in an eating establishment, and after the cat stuck his head into Big Mouth’s cheese fries Grillby not so reluctantly deemed it best that somebody else take the guy home.

At first, Sans had been worried that Papyrus had had enough with pets after the years of rock neglect, but as soon as the cat rubbed up against Papyrus’s leg and started purring he was sold.

“ WELL…THEY ARE SO SOFT, AND ALSO NOT CHEWING MY ON MY FIBULA,” Some of the lesser dogs in Snowdin were not very respectful of Papyrus’s boundaries.

After getting the necessary items, and taking him to the vet, Catsup was the newest resident in the Skeleton Brother’s household.

“WHOA, BROTHER I THOUGHT WE AGREED ON SOMETHING COOLER AND NON PUN SOUNDING. MAYBE SOMETHING WITH GREAT IN THE NAME, AFTER ME?”

“how about meowaxander the great? ooh or... ”

“NYEHH!” Papyrus let out a sign of annoyance and then smiled a bit, “ACTUALLY, ON SECOND THOUGHT I THINK A CAT THAT SLEEPS SO OFTEN IS MORE AKIN TO YOURSELF, BROTHER.”

And that was why Sans was now up getting fur stuck between his finger bones and stirring cream in a coffee before the sun was up.

****************************************************************************

Life was moving pretty fast considering they had only been on the surface for two months. Sans drifted in and out of sleep as he tried to read the newspaper headlines. The monsters had only been big news for a month before the human media returned to cover some election that was coming up. Sans did not really care about human politics as long as the monsters and humans kept playing nice. Toriel insisted Frisk had given their more tedious ambassadorial duties to some older politician. However, as the official face of monster-human relations Frisk, and as consequence Toriel, had been pretty busy the last two months, so busy Sans had only seen them in the newspaper. Sans was thinking they should go visit them as he drifted off asleep into his crossword.

“GLAD TO SEE YOU…AWAKE, ER DOWNSTAIRS SO EARLY SANS,”

Papyrus burst into the room, back from his job as night security at the mall. It was one of five jobs that Papyrus now had, and if Sans was being honest with himself he worried that Papyrus needed to cut back on a few.

Since they had reached the surface, Sans had had a heart to heart with Alphys and Papyrus. He knew it would be a long time before he could get over the resets and losing Gaster, but… he had to admit talking had helped. Every week the nightmares faded a little more, and Alphys had even helped him find his new job at the observatory to distract him.

Sans was starting to realize that after worrying about himself so much, it might not hurt to go back to worrying a tiny bit about Papyrus, who after coming to the surface had not quite come to terms that his big life dream had to change.

“hey bro,” Sans mumbled his head planted into the newspaper, “you stay up all day and night working again?”

“ONE CANNOT REST WHEN CRIMINALS COULD BE OUT AT ANY MOMENT, AND AS ROY- SECURITY GUARD IT IS MY JOB TO APPREHEND THEM.” Papyrus recited, but not before almost tripping out of his work boots and almost slipping onto Catsup.

Papyrus frowned a little bit before sidestepping into the kitchen and grabbing some bacon and a few eggs from the fridge. At least his job at the all night diner was helping him improve his cooking skills. There was the security job, the diner job, the lifeguard job, assistant coaching for Undyne, and either a job painting houses or building them, Sans couldn’t remember. He hoped it was painting since his bro was actually pretty skilled when it came to that (Sans fondly remembered that rock Paps painted to look like a bridge).

 

While Sans was lost in thought, Papyrus finished up breakfast and the two of them sat down together to eat before Papyrus had to rush off again for the lifeguard duty.

Sans himself had reopened his hotdog stand (just on Sundays) and left shortly after to get the lunch rush, deciding that the lot near the pool would be as good a place as any. After last weekend’s disaster, he checked that he had a permit for the area, and then packed up his cart before snapping through space-time.

********************************************************************************

Sans had not previously been big on cellphones, but after getting back to the surface he realized that sending his brother and friends pun filled memes was pretty cathartic. As he sold hot dogs and cats to the crowd of happy human and monster kids he took the time to sneak a pretty impressive number of pool and hotdog jokes to Toriel.

hey tori, how do people great each other in the pool?

How, Sans?

they wave!

Hey Sans What did the Mama Hot Dog say to the little frankfurter when they went to the store?

What did they say Tori?

Ketch-up! (In honor of you new addition :P)

After a while she texted him asking if he and Papyrus wanted to come over for dinner, and if snail pie would be alright.

haha, yeah tori whatever floats your goat. not sure if paps can make it with work.

A particularly sticky handed kid took a hotdog from his fingers, and Sans had to wipe the sugary substance onto his towel before he saw the reply.

Ahh, mabe next time, but still I am happy to have you over. See you at Eight O’ Clock ]:D

As the afternoon sun began to sink a little lower into the sky, Sans packed up his cart, tucking the condiments into a little door and rolling up the rest of the unheated hot cats into an icebox. One bottle slipped from his hand and just as he turned around to pick it up a large sopping wet scaly fish monster dressed in a bright red and black bikini took the opportunity to pick him up for a suplex.

“You have to learn to keep your guard up at all times sentry!” Undyne shouted as she picked him up and started to hurl him down with her. Sans teleported out of her grip, and leaned up against the hotdog stand as Undyne crashed herself into the grass and dirt. Sans had only recently telling people he could teleport, but they all seemed to think of it as a cool trick more than anything else.

“You cheater!” Undyne laughed, wiping most of the mud off her face before running back to Alphys who had been coming down the path more slowly. Alphys did not seem to mind when Undyne planted a slightly muddy kiss on her cheek. Papyrus came with them, wearing a bright orange pair of swim trunks and face covered in sunscreen, which Papyrus insisted on wearing to set a good example for the kids with skin.

“you kids have fun at the pool today?” Sans asked, putting the rogue mustard bottle into his cart, and kicking up the stand that locked the wheels.

“IT WOULD HAVE BEEN A LOT MORE FUN IF SOMEONE HADN’T KEPT TRING TO PLAY CHICKEN WITH INNOCENT POOL PATRONS EVERY TIME I TURNED MY SKULL,” Papyrus groaned.

“Hey lighten up Papyrus, it was pretty awesome when Alphys tackled Aaron into the deep end,” Undyne replied.

“We…well that was only because you charged me into him, I just hand my hand out in front of myself on in..instinct…” Alphys trailed off, although Sans noticed the edge of Alphys lips were curled into a smile.

“WELL IF YOU KEEP UP THAT SORT OF HORSEPLAY I AM GOING TO HAVE TO GIVE UP MY DREAM JOB OF ULTIMATE LIFEGUARD!” Papyrus stuck one arm forward dramatically in a very anime-ish pose.

“haha horseplay with Aaron, good one bro…” Sans chuckled, while Papyrus continues to look flustered.

“Don’t worry Papyrus, we wont get in the way of your HOPES AND DREAMS,” Undyne affectionately gave Papyrus a quick noogie, and Papyrus squirmed and continued to look miserable before slumping over defeated and giving a begrudging smile.

“so, mr. ultimate lifeguard, tori invited us over to her place for dinner with frisk, i know you might be busy but…” Sans hoped Papyrus would take a break for a bit.

“Oh MAN I forgot how much I missed Frisk! It has been, FOREVER since we have seen them last, we really need to stop by. Let me text Tori and see if we can come,” Undyne blurted out before she started mashing a series of text to Toriel. It was a little forward to invite oneself over for dinner, but everyone knew Toriel would probably be more than happy to have a few extra guests.

“SANS, I WOULD LOVE TO SEE FRISK AND HER MAJESTY, HOWEVER AS YOU KNOW I HAVE A SHIFT AT SUNNY’S DINER TONIGHT. I HAVE TO FULFIL MY OTHER DREAM” Papyrus posed dramatically again, “OF BECOMING A MASTER CHEF AND I CANNOT TAKE A VACATION UNTIL I AM ONE! IN FACT I THINK I AM RUNNING LATE,” Papyrus gasped at the last sentence and grabbed a clean shirt out of his duffel bag and started to throw it on while jogging towards downtown.

“bro, I can at least give you a shortc-,” Sans started but Papyrus finished getting the shirt on, and engaged full speed, running out of sight.

Sans let out a long sigh as Alphys and Undyne grabbed the other end of his cart. Sans gave them a quick hop to their house, popped over to give Catsup some dinner and attention, and then popped over to Tori’s place.

*******************************************************************

Since coming to the surface, most of the monsters had settled pretty close to Mt. Ebott, in a small city forty five minutes away from the nature reserve that held their old home. Toriel and Frisk lived two blocks away in a nice part of the development, in a nice upscale Victorian style house, complete with a porch swing a backyard garden. Toriel had at first wanted something a bit more modern after living in the ruins, but the garden really was beautiful and gave her something to distract Asgore with every time he came over trying to get back together.

Undyne and Alphys lived a bit closer to Sans and Papyrus, they all had a pretty good amount of gold saved up, but not quite as much as the Queen, so they settled with normal old suburban style homes.

Sitting at Tori’s place for dinner was the really relaxing. Alphys apologized for inviting themselves by bringing some triangular balls of rice with seaweed on them called Onigiri, which Sans felt were pretty delicious. Now that Undyne and Alphys lived together, Alphys had decided, if for no other reason than to prevent her house from burning to a crisp, to take up cooking. She was getting pretty good at the basics, and had started branching out to try stuff from her animes.

Of course, Toriel’s cooking was hard to beat, and after a third piece of Snail pie, and a second Onigiri Sans was pretty stuffed. Frisk, who for some reason was pushing the snail pie around with his fork, was telling everyone about their week at school.

“We have a science project about the solar system coming up, and I am going to do a presentation on Mercury!” they exclaimed. “I have to make a model and everything!”

“oh if you need any help just let me know, kiddo,” Sans normally would let Alphys help out with this sort of thing, but since coming to the surface he had started working in the field.

The surface researchers had been skeptical at first, but Sans’ physics background translated very well to astrophysics, and after a few remedial courses on astronomy (hey he’d never seen real stars before) and a letter from Alphys, and a letter from the King of Monsters himself, Sans was allowed to work at the local mountain Observatory. Working at the observatory was nice, crunching numbers and looking through the high tech telescope at the shimmering stars was probably Sans’ dream job. Sometimes the dark emptiness reminded Sans of… well… he would find him someday. So most weekday evenings he worked in the lab, and on Sundays he sold hot cats for old time’s sake.

“oh Sans, that would be lovely. Maybe you could show Frisk the planets on the telescope if you have some time,” Toriel gave a smile.

Everyone had such a nice time talking they decided to meet up again next week as well. After a few hours of happy chatting, Frisk was pretty tired, and went to bed.

****************************************************************

“Let Papyrus know I say hi, maybe he can come next week?” Frisk handed Sans a crayon drawing from school with themselves, Sans, and Papyrus sledding in Snowdin, before scampering up the stairs to their bed.

It was a week later, and Sans had come over earlier to help Frisk build the model of Mercury. It was a pretty accurate model, and Sans was pretty proud of how well Frisk had painted with the photographs he brought over.

“hey Frisk, how do you organize a party in space?...you planet.” Frisk giggled, and yeah Sans was having a blast.

Undyne and Alphys came in about halfway through the night, and had fun painting the extra Styrofoam balls. Alphys had painted hers to look like Death the Kid from Soul Eater and Undyne had decided hers would collide with a black hole, and before Alphys or Sans could explain what that would do to it, she crashed it into the ground. Everyone had a great time.

With Frisk in bed, this week’s snail pie, onigiri, and peanut butter sandwiches (San’s potluck contribution mostly eaten by Frisk) devoured, Undyne and Alphys turned to Sans.

“So speaking of Papyrus, I couldn’t help but notice he has been a bit… of a wor-workaholic lately,” Alphys gently started.

“More like he won’t have any fun anymore!” Undyne shouted. “This last month he has barely been texting me, and he only came over to cook spaghetti with me once. He didn’t even stir the noodles right.”

“yeah,” Sans began, “paps is usually a bit more active than me…”

Undyne cleared her throat pointedly.

“a lot more active than me,” Sans continued, “but i can’t seem to get him to relax a bit and enjoy the surface. you remember about how he was about the royal guard, he hates taking a break. i think if he just got out and tried a few surface things out he might relax again”

Toriel sat up and began to speak, “Why don’t you have a little talk with him about it. I am sure he will listen to what you have to say.” Uh Sans still did not enjoy talking about these sort of things, but if he waited any longer it would become a big problem.

“And I have the perfect idea of a fun thing to do!” Undyne exclaimed.” Alphys and I are going out next Saturday night, to hit Grillby’s new place. You and Paps should come!”

“But…but wasn’t that a double date, remember we were gonna set up Wh..Whimmy and Knight,” Alphys started.

“OH MAN CHANGE OF PLAN! We can set these two dweebs up with them!” Undyne threw her drink into the air, which Sans caught with his blue magic, Toriel not hiding a gasp as a mostly full glass of grape juice almost splashed her ceiling.

Sans face also looked a bit uncomfortable as he lowered the glass back down to the table, a bit farter from Undyne’s reach, “uh guys, do you really think a date is the best way to get paps out, i mean, paps doesn’t even like grillby’s...”

“Oh come ON Sans, Papyrus never shuts up about the dating rulebook he read, I think he’d be pretty excited, “ Undyne continued, while Sans looked around nervously, one eye still dimly glowing blue, “You are just trying to WUSS out!”

Sans had not known Undyne as long as he knew Alphys, but he understood that if he was going to be her friend, he might end up in more situations like this in the future. Here determination shining brightly, Sans knew he was trapped.

“To...Toriel, would you like to come, too? I have a few more friends from the CORE if you are interested” Alphys politely asked.

“After I left Asgore, I tried dating once or twice, but it always ends… I do not think I am ready yet to steel myself for such a relationship” Toriel replied.

Sans forgot that Toriel was essentially immortal, and while some types of non-boss monsters lived quite a long time (Skeletons were up there), it would be probably still be hard to start a relationship lightly for her.

“Oh, right, so-sorr,” Alphy’s began wringing her tail between her hands.

“Oh no, my dear, I simply think I am content being Frisk’s mother at the moment. Maybe in a few years,” Toriel frowned at a daisy Asgore had brought her and edged it awkwardly to the end of the table. She smiled wistfully, before looking up, “Ah, well, I think it is a lovely plan for you youngsters to get out.”

The four of them chatted a bit, and promised to meet up for dinner with Toriel and let her know how it went the following week. Finally, Sans walked home, looking at the stars, and preparing for a chat with his brother.

*****************************************************************************  
Somehow when Sans got home, Papyrus was on the couch, paint not quite fully scrubbed off from his bones from the painting job, looking like he might actually take a nap with Catsup sitting on his lap.

“hey bro, are you doing ok?” Sans started. It was rare to catch Papyrus sitting still anymore, so this was the best chance Sans was going to get.

Papyrus slowly gave him a weak smile and went back to petting Catsup.

“hey um, mysteriously not answering questions is my thing, bro and i personally have been working to stop that since we came up here.” Sans gave Papyrus a concerned look.

Papyrus tried to hold out, but honestly brooding did not come very naturally to him. Sans sat down next to him, and Catsup immediately (and in Sans’ mind somewhat rudely) abandoned Papyrus’s bony lap for Sans’.

“WELL…” Papyrus started, “THERE IS JUST SO MUCH I WANT TO TRY NOW THAT WE ARE FINALLY UP IN THE SURFACE. I THOUGHT I WOULD KNOW WHAT I WANTED TO DO IF I JUST TRIED EVERYTHING.... BUT…”

“but that’s because it is impossible to try everything at once, bro you are just working yourself to the bone. ”

“BUT HOW ELSE AM I SUPPOSED TO BE GREAT. TO FIND MY CALLING?”

“paps, buddy, we are skeletons. you are twenty-four. you have at least another good three hundred and seventy-six years to figure that out.”

“BUT HOW DID YOU KNOW WHAT YOU WANTED TO DO”

‘what physics? Look you know that’s cause … the old man… pushed me into it. it’s just lucky I actually enjoyed it. i admit I just got lucky that it makes me happy, but i had time to figure that out. I mean, look after he…left… and I had to take of you… I forgot I liked it for a while. i mean I have had jobs that weren’t right for me either, the sentry job, the judge job, but I had time to figure that out. I never overwhelmed myself, or say had five jobs at once.”

“SIX JOBS ACTUALLY,” Papyrus began, and let out a sigh.

“wait there is one you haven’t told me about”

“NYEHH, WELL TWO OF THEM ARE SIMILAR. ONE IS PAINTING HOUSES, THE OTHER IS BUILDING THEM, BUT THE ARE FROM TWO DIFFERENT CONTRACTING GROUPS, AND ACTUALLY I THINK I DO NOT ACTUALLY ENJOY EITHER. THE CLEANING AFTERWARDS IS AWFUL, AND THE SAWDUST AND PAINT ARE THE WORST…” Papyrus’s eyesockets narrowed as he started to fruitlessly rub at the paint that had seeped into his arm and skull. The rubbing blurred the paint more, making him an unholy clash between Halloween and an Easter egg.

“ok, little bro, either way it is perfectly normal to not know what you want to do with life. Or to change what you want to do. besides, i know a trick to getting that stuff out of your bones. why don’t you turn on the tub, and while you steep we can maybe narrow it down to two jobs…” Sans looked Paprus in the eye, and gave him an over the shoulder hug, “i know i am not the best example when it comes to not pushing yourself, but… i miss you a bunch, and so do undyne, and tori, and frisk, and everyone,” Sans gave Papyrus a reassuring hug, and Papyrus slowly nodded his head.

“OH MY GOODNESS. UNDYNE, FRISK… I HAVE BEEN A TERRIBLE FRIEND LATELY. I CANNOT BELIEVE I HAVE BEEN NEGLECTING THE FRIENDSHIPS WITH EVERYONE. I WILL HAVE TO CALL EVERYONE IMMEDIATELY AND SET UP FRIENDSHIP DATES”

“Actually, about that bro, if you are interested Undyne and Alphy’s kindof set us up…”

**************************************************************************

“NYEHH HEHE HE, I STILL CAN’T BELIEVE UNDYNE GOT YOUR LAZY BONES GOING ON THE DATE, TOO,” Papyrus shouted for the third time. “HAVE YOU EVERY ACTAULLY BEEN ON A DATE BROTHER? I MEAN I THE GREAT PAPYRUS AM A MASTER OF DATING, BUT…”

If Sans had eyes he would have rolled them out of his sockets. He poured half a container of bleach in with the bubble bath to soak the stain out of Papyrus’s arm while Papyrus sat in the bath trying to look dignified with his swim shorts and a rubber duckie. Despite Papyrus’s desire to be clean, they had talked for a few hours before coming up, and after three flow charts and a lively discussion on the pros and cons of mall santas, Sans managed to get Paps down to just three jobs (assistant coaching with Undyne twice a week, cooking at the diner early morning shift, and lifeguarding some Sundays. They also agreed to try to hang out with some brotherly bonding at least once a week.

Sans shrugged and gave Paps some privacy, he was glad his brother was going to tone it down a bit, but did this mean he had to dress up for a date?

 

Papyrus was getting back to his usual self, and had decided that Wednesday would be a good opportunity for brotherly bonding. Papyrus was so excited he practically threw Sans into the red convertible the second Sans finished his breakfast sausage. Paps drove pretty fast, and as they arrived at their destination, Sans had just finished tying his sneakers.

Papyrus was no longer working at the mall, but the security guard near the entrance gave him a smile as he brought Sans in.

“IT IS MUCH NICER HERE DURNG THE DAY. NONE OF THE HUMAN STORES WERE EVER OPEN WHEN I WAS PATROLLING,” Papyrus shouted, while dragging Sans into some store with murals of teenage humans posing in sunlit ocean backdrops. Something told Sans this was going to take a while.

After the third store with little eagles decorating everything (what was with humans and birds?) Sans settled with a new pair of capris, and a green plaid button down that reminded him of what some of the physicists from work wore. Papyrus had insisted he looked sharp in exclaiming “GREEN IS DEFINATELY YOUR COLOR”, and posting a pic of him to his blog. Undyne and Alphys already liked it, to Sans chagrin. He also bought a new, less wintery hoodie, which he would probably never take off to hide said awful green plaid button down.

Papyrus on the other hand had bought a new muscle shirt, some (very) skinny jeans, and a good girl gone bad graphic-t, each one getting a like from Undyne.

After a quick stop at the food court, where Papyrus insisted Sans try this human drink.

“NOT ONLY DOES IT HAVE MILK IN IT, WHICH YOU COULD USE TO GROW A LITTLE TALLER, BUT IT ALSO LITTLE BUBBLES,” Papyrus’s eyes seemed to light up like stars as he drank it.

The two of them enjoyed their bubble milk teas, and while Sans noticed a few humans giving them a bit of a wide birth, as they wandered the aisles he was enjoying himself.

As they were on their way out, Sans finally saw the perfect date shirt, Papyrus hated it but this would be perfect…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh no, what could be on the shirt?
> 
> This is my first fanfiction... I have been enjoying the Sans/ Grillby stuff and wanted to take a shake at it. I hope you like it.  
> It is going to take a few chapters for the two to get together.
> 
> Also, Citations:  
> Sans and Tori's text jokes are modified from the website jokes4us (which has some adult humor).  
> The awful knight joke is from memebase


	2. In which Sans wears a tie and Grillby kicks a door

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Let the dates begin!

 

It was Saturday Night, and Sans teleported himself and Paps to Grillby’s new place. Grillby gave Sans a smile, and Papyrus a quizzical look.

 

“……The usual…?” Grillby looked does at Sans in his outfit, and probably should have guessed that would not be the case.

 

“ah.. sorry grillbz, believe it or not, I got set up to go on this date thing with my bro and my friends, they should be here any minute,” Sans explained.

 

“ohh… a date?” Sans did not notice Grillby’s flames dip a little bit, as Undyne bursted through the door.

 

Undyne walked up to Sans, and looked like she was going to try to suplex him to the ground when she saw his t-shirt. A cartoon pastry was flexing its biceps, with the phrase “stud muffin” written in San’s favorite font. Papyrus didn’t look too much classier in his “date outfit” this time with the newly markered “good papyrus gone cool” t-shirt.

 

Alphys sat them down at the bar, and introduced them to their dates, Knight-Knight , who towered over Papyrus and looked like this was not her idea, and Whimsy the Whimsalot who fluttered shyly near Knight’s head. Apparently they used to guard the CORE, and Alphys figured that since Paps and Sans used to guard Snowdin they would have plenty to talk about.

 

To Sans’s dismay his date was the towering Knight-Knight, whose avian face was sticking out of a black shiny dress, and whose helmet was still on. Sans wasn’t sure if he should look at her bird heard, or helmeted head, and awkwardly moved between both, while trying to ask her about her day.

 

Papyrus was not having a bad time, gesturing wildly as he talked about his many great deeds of dog rescuing, and helping lost Snowdin kids while Whimsum awkwardly fluttered around a cocktail avoiding his wild arm swings.

 

Alphys and Undyne tried to move the conversation along, but after exhausting what it was like to guard a city from humans when only one had showed up in their lifetimes, they ran out of luck. By the time the appetizer of fried onion rings and cheese fries came around, conversation had stagnated pretty badly and the monsters were mostly staring at their food.

 

“so did you hear about the new applicant knight, sir plus?” Sans started and Knight-Knight looked up for a second, “Asgore said they had too many guards already, they didn’t want a _sir-plus_!”

 

OK, that was pretty bad, but he had not expected all four of her eyes to roll…

 

“oh man, I _sword_ of thought you hadn’t heard that one before,” Sans finished, but as the rest of table deadpanned, only Grillby let out a sparky snicker behind the bar.

 

As soon as the check came, Knight and Whimsy got up, politely thanked Alphys, and headed out. Sans met eyes with Papyrus, who realized Whimsalot has left mid sentence and was looking kindof hurt…ugh.

 

Grillby on the other hand let out a relaxed breath and finally stopped polishing the glasses near the bar.

 *************************************************************************************************************************************************

 

This week they met up in front of the restaurant, whose bright orange neon light shone down on Undyne as she monologued…

 

“Okay, listen up you dweebs! Last week was terrible, but this week, I think I found a few dates who might work out better! Sans, your brother tell me you are just as into guys, so I found you a hot stud,” Undyne deliberately winked, making Sans a bit worried. “And Paps, Alphys says this guy is a bit more talkative. NOW get out there and DATE!”

 

Sans, did not have long to wonder what Undyne meant by a hot stud, as Aaron glided into the room arms and green tail flexing profusely in synch. His tail was not quite the same green as Sans horrible plaid shirt that Papyrus had _not_ let him cover with a hoodie, so the pair clashed just a little bit.

 

“So…” Aaron dripped, “Education, Hobbies, talents, do tell ;)” Aaron gave another flex and leaned in closer to Sans. A glass broke somewhere, as Grillby accidentally lit one of his patron’s beers on fire. Sans just started to sweat and incoherently began to mumble about astrophysics and trumpets before glancing at his brother’s date. Oh stars was that--

 

Madjick popped out of his own hat and began waving a stick around dramatically. Papyrus was quiet just for a few seconds, as Madjick started spewing nonsense.

 

“SO WHAT ARE YOUR INTERESTS AND OR HOBBIES,” Papyrus screeched politely.

 

“tinkle tinkle ho! Abracadabra,” Madjick blathered while Papyrus ducked a chaser orb that flew past another group of patrons.

 

Sans, turned back to Aaron, trying not to laugh and decided he might as well give it his best shot.

 

“so i’d offer to buy you a beer, but you already have a six pack,” Sans tried, while flexing his arm back, a gesture that he felt would have gone better if he had any muscles to speak of.

 

“Haha. Nice. My Kind of joke ;) ,” Aaron replied, winking awfully, and Sans would have been hopeful, but Aaron’s gaze was already drifting away from big boned Sans, and towards Papyrus, who was regaled in muscle shirt and basketball biceps glory.

 

Half an hour later, Aaron was leaning against Papyrus, pointedly flexing in his general direction, while Papyrus himself was doing his best to have a conversation with Madjick while (rather easily at this point) avoiding magic chasers. Aaron tried to caress Pap’s basketball biceps with and floating heart and Sans tried his best to resist gravity flinging Aaron into the cactus on the side of the bar. Undyne was holding back laughter, and Alphys was holding back Sans.

 

“SO MADJICK I AM CURRENTLY WORKING AT A POOL, DO YOU WANT TO COME SWIMMING SOMET-,” Papyrus was interrupted.

 

“Water Water everywhere!” Madjick shouted loudly, before jumping on the table and doing a strange jig. Papyrus’s eye sockets narrowed, and he brushed Aaron’s heart away for the fifth time.

 

“NYEHEHEH PERHAPS YOU WOULD LIKE TO DANCE, I CAN ASSURE YOU, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS AM A VERY SKILLED DANCER,” Papyrus tried, while awkwardly holding a gloved hand out.

 

“Hey, why don’t we ditch these guys and head over to the dance floor. You can CHECK out my moves all you want ;),” Aaron winked at Papyrus.

 

Papyrus looked a bit taken aback, but was getting sick of Madjick, so he politely asked Madjick if that was ok. Madjick flipped upside down and bobbed his head yes and a defeated Papyrus went to the dance floor with Aaron.

 

“Wow, Spunky! Love it! ;),” Aaron winked at Papyrus. Sans tried not to hurl, and noticed that he was turning his own drink blue and rotating it.

 

“WOW, a fellow Wizard!” Madjick started babbling at Sans. At least Madjick stopped sending out magical chasers after that.

 

After a final half hour of Aaron awkwardly winking at Papyrus and telling him about how sweaty he was, and Madjick blathering in Sans general direction, Sans and Papyrus found that this week they were the ones politely thanking Alphys and leaving immediately after the check. Undyne texted Sans later, asking if Sans was ok with Madjick getting his number. Sans just let that text sit there, and went to sleep.

 

 *************************************************************************************************************************************************

Week Three:

 

Grillby looked pretty nervous when Undyne brought Woshua into his establishment, taking a quick order and ducking into the back room as the living washing machine sloshed to the front bar. Woshua and Papyrus shared cleaning tips, but right as Grillby was handing out the drinks Woshua accidently hosed Papyrus and his milkshake down with soapy water. Sans rushed in and shortcutted Grillby to the kitchen as the water splashed over the counter. Sans rejoined his date, but was pretty sure Grillbz was never going to come out with the rest of their order. Woshua was pretty embarrassed, and had left, profusely shouting apologies to the firemonster peeking through the kitchen doors, while Papyrus headed out with a roaring Undyne.

 

Sans tried to make So Sorry laugh, but they were probably the only monster in the history of existence more awkward and shy than Alphys. Between Sans nervous jokes that spiraled downward after each one fell flat, and So Sorry’s shifting, apologizing, and habit of scribbling on the napkins, Alphys was actually the one to take pity and suggest they go home.

 *************************************************************************************************************************************************

Week 4:

Sans had to hold back a snort as after a drink or two Lesser Dog got fresh with Papyrus and tried to Nuzzle up to him, licking his skull. Papyrus kept grabbing his own radius and ulna and inching farter and farther along the bar, until he actually stood up and ran out, claiming he was feeling ill.  

 

Poor Lesser dog, the guy had had a crush on Paps for ages, but at the same time, he needed to learn to respect boundaries. Still, Sans tried to cheer him up with a few bone jokes, and a milkshake, and after a bit Lesser eventually joined the rest of the gang playing poker.

 

Sans, on the other hand was with a smoke headed businessman from Hotland. Sans found them oddly cute and Alphys seemed to really want this one to work out. It was going fine, until work came up. The guy was apparently a big shot at a puzzle block factory, and he went into a huge rant about the importance of _good_ puzzles and how annoying it was that his commute to work wasn’t quicker. When the guy started waxing poetic about Mettaton, Sans wondered if Papyrus wouldn’t have been a better fit.

 

They ordered some hot dogs and beer, and the nail in the coffin was when Grillby came by and mentioned Sans used to sell hotdogs in Hotland. Oh wow, was Sans really that guy that sold hot dogs, how _quaint_. Ugh. Smoke head and Alphys got into a pretty deep discussion about Mettaton’s latest performance, and Sans took the opportunity to drift off.

 

When he woke up Smoke head was long gone, and Undyne was faithfully petting Alphys’ head while Alphys talked about anime. Sans turned to the dog poker game, making fun of Smoke head and chatting with Grillby and the ex-Guards until the bar closed.

 

 *************************************************************************************************************************************************

 

“So dear how is the dating life?” Toriel joked, Sans groaned into his pie.

 

“WELL I AM PERSONALLY MAKING SO MANY NEW FRIENDS. EVEN IF I CANNOT RETURN THEIR PASSIONS, IT IS NICE TO GET OUT OF THE HOUSE,” Papyrus exclaimed before digging back into the spaghetti he had brought to their potluck. Lesser dog had apologized to Papyrus, who had forgiven him and even tried playing a few games of poker. Papyrus was pretty bad at it, but seemed to have had a good time.

 

Frisk smiled and gave Papyrus a thumbs up, and then bit into Sans’ peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Between the snail pie, Pap’s unusual turnip spaghetti, and the new experimental filling Undyne was putting into Alphys’ onigiri, Sans sandwiches were a saving grace for the eight year old.

 

Frisked asked Sans, while winking “How about you?”

 

“well…” Sans held up his sandwich, “Lets just say I haven’t _jammed_ well with anyone yet.”

 

“Oh well, if you haven’t met anyone who _tickles your funny bone_ yet, I might have a friend you can _pie_ going out with,” Toriel winked mysteriously

 

 *************************************************************************************************************************************************

Week 5:

 

Honestly, Papyrus had gotten over his obsession with work, and probably did not need Sans accompanying him to every date. Still, the idea of going out with someone wasn’t horrible, and if Toriel knew them, than maybe they weren’t so bad. Toriel mentioned her friend was a bit shy and old fashioned, so Sans tried his best to think of a few tame icebreakers and dress a little more nicely this round. He dug up a dress shirt with a tie (did he last wear this during graduation) and psyched himself up. It could not possibly be worse than the last couple of times.

 

When they arrived, Undyne gave him the usual pep talk before running up and grabbing drinks for herself and Alphys.

 

Grillby was sweating, he had listened to Undyne’s pep talk, and if this was a friend of the Queen he might have something to worry about… Sans was even wearing a tie… this had to be serious.

 

Or he would have had something to worry about if Alphys wasn’t wheeling in Sans’ date. Sans mouth actually opened as Alphys dragged in the old training dummy that usually lived in Tori’s backyard.

 

“Sa-Sans, this is Dummy, Dummy Sans…” Alphys moved Dummy to the booth Sans was sitting at, and Sans tried to introduce himself. Dummy stood still and did not respond. Alphys stared at him expectantly. Sans tried a knock knock joke. It stared back at him expressionless. After a few more jokes, Sans thought it might be glaring at him, but he could not be sure.

 

“We-well, I’ll just leave you two lovebirds alone,” Alphys hurried to sit at the main bar with Undyne.

 

Meanwhile, Papyrus was actually having a pretty animated conversation with the Temmie shopkeeper about her ongoing College studies.

 

Eventually Grillby came by with a menu, smiling a bit more smugly than he should have, and practically skipped back to the bar. As Sans kept trying to make small talk, Undyne started to whisper to Alphys.

 

“heh i could order you some fries, but you already look pretty _stuffed_ ,” Sans tried his best, gesturing towards the bar menu. Sans went silent for a few minutes, and fiddled around with his tie. The other patrons were staring, even Papyrus was had a gloved hand over his mouth, and was barely containing himself from snorting into his milkshake. At least Paps was getting a laugh. Sans was feeling pretty mad at Toriel. Dummy looked like they were about to fall over.

 

After another minute of looking blankly at the menu, he decided he would try to enter the dating HUD and check the Dummies stats. If Dummy was old fashioned they might prefer that. Sans was relieved when a menu popped up. Ok, he could work with this, he could maybe just try FLIRT.

 

“hey, you can be the apple of my eyes, too,” Sans said, trying to give a compliment after CHECKing once.

 

Sans expected maybe a smile, but instead a sad looking ghost slowly separated from the Dummy, clearly tired of his aimless shenanigans. Sans was pretty sure their incorporeal arm stump was attempting a face palm as they drifted away sadly.

 

The room went silent and everyone stared at Sans. Papyrus’s eyes bulged out of his sockets, Grillby sparked up in surprise, and Alphys awkwardly walked over to Sans and patted his arm to console him. Sans glared at the room, until the curious eyes shifted away and wondered if there was any hope for him if he could not even get a date with a dummy right. He folded his head into his arms and Alphys gave him a final pat before returning to Undyne.

 

 

“So…..Sans,” Grillby came up to Sans. The smaller skeleton looked at the elemental who had left his place at the bar to sit next to him.

 

“hey grillbz,” Sans looked up from the drink he was nursing, “come to rub it in?” Grillby and Sans had been friends for a while now, and while Sans knew Grillby was not like that, he was in a pretty bad mood after the fifth failed date.

 

“Sans… of course not… um.. Why are you so upset… did you really like them…?” Grilby tried to comfort Sans, while also making sure his heart wasn’t actually broken.

 

“well, no, we just met…just starting to think i am not cut out for this whole dating thing,” Sans lamented. “should probably just stick to physics and practical jokes.”

 

“….Sans… you can’t just give up cause you keep meeting…” Grillby wanted to say jerks but refrained, “you just need to meet the right monster…” Grilby tried to look anywhere but Sans’ face when he spoke, which he didn’t have to worry about and the skeleton was still staring sadly into his drink.

 

“yeah, i guess” Sans finally looked up, “thanks grillbz, i can always count on you to _brighten_ me up.” Sans gave Grillby a quick smile, while Grillby let out a snort.

 

“you really _lighten_ up my life, grillbz,” Sans would have been able to tell if Papyrus was listening in on his conversation by load “NYEHS” but realized his bro and Temmie had left.

 

“well, either way i think i might just go back to chilling here without all this dating nonsense,” Sans continued, leaning back into the booth and staring out the window into the town. It was raining pretty heavily outside.

 

“Oh… Sans…I.. have.. been meaning to ask you…,” Grillby shimmered as he started to talk. Was he really ready to do this now? Sans looked really cute in the bowtie, and the dogs had been pushing him to do this all week. He caught Doggo’s eye abruptly looked back at Sans.

 

Sans started to notice Grillby was shaking a bit, and had gotten out a piece of paper with something scribbled on it. The paper immediately burnt up in his hands. Grillby took out a container from his breastpocket and his flames turned blue and he pored the whiskey into his jack-o-lantern mouth.

 

“what’s up grillbz?” Sans was now staring right at Grillby, smiling slightly.

 

“I… was wondering if… now that we are on the surface you…” Grillby continued, until a BOOM was heard, and his front doors flew open.

 

Another Dummy had come in, and this one Sans recognized as the one that used to live next to Undyne. He was Napstablook’s cousin, what was his name again? Grumpy? Cranky? Oh right

 

“YOU. YOU. YOU. Shortstuff. The NERVE you have treating my cousin like that! THE NERVE!” Mads was screeching and spewing cotton all over Sans and Grillby. Undyne and Alphys, who had been nuzzling in the corner looked up at the commotion.

 

“That was AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL! My cousin came here for a nice date, but all you did was tell the worst jokes they have ever heard. They were finally happy being corporal again, to the point where they wanted to make corporal friends after that STUPID kid ruined it.” The Dummy kept spewing cotton, to the point where Sans was starting to look like a fuzzy snowman, and the constant sizzling from Grillby was starting to give a nasty odor to the bar.

 

“And then I hear some no good SKELETON goes and doesn’t even use the dating HUD until half an hour in. What A TERRIBLE TERRIBLE TERRIBLE waste of their time,” Mads shrieked as he hopped closer and jabbed sans with his cotton nose.

 

“Hey Mads, relax, nobody even uses the dating HUD anymore. Ok well, maybe Papyrus does, but really most monsters don’t bother,” Undyne was trying to calm Mads down, but it was not working.

 

“IDIOTS IDIOTS IDIOTS, Either way, did you have to tell her those horrible jokes? They were inconsolable the jokes were that bad, ” Mads was hopping back and forth on the tabletop at this point.

 

“oh _cotton_ my jokes can be a little stale, _button_ some occasions they can get a laugh,” Sans figured it was worth a shot. It was not worth a shot.

 

Before Sans could blink, Mads threw a knife straight at his skull. Sans, who was about to dodge the attack barely had time to light up his eyes, before Grillby stuck his hand out. The heat in the room flashed up, as Grillby melted the knife into his arm. In a flash, the knife was gone, and Mads backed away.

 

“Get…out of my bar… and away from my friends…” Grillby stood up, eyes blazing bright blue, and a twisted Jack-O-Lantern smile lighting up purple.

 

“WELL WELL WELL…” Mads actually paused for a second before deciding that he was made of cotton and Grillby was made of fire. “That was my ONLY KNIFE. But I guess…Just stay away from my cousin… YOU IDIOT!” Mads shouted and flung one last wave of cotton before kicking back through the door and hopping away.

 

The bar was silent for a moment. Undyne charged out the door chasing after Mads, and Alphys, shuffled out after. Things were silent for a few more beats.

 

“so, uh thanks grillbz, you really saved my skull,” Sans looked pretty impressed, “uh what did you want to talk about.”

 

Grillby noticed the whole rest of the bar was watching. He opened his mouth and after the daring display of bravery, promptly chickened out,

 

“…Oh how is…. How is Catsup doing, Sans?”

 

Now Grillby was the one calling himself an IDIOT, and as he melted a rock near his apartment complex and kicked his shoes into the door. At least he was invited to come see the cat tomorrow. Hopefully he’d be able to get his courage up soon…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Grillby... but more importantly What happened with paps and Temmie?


	3. In which Papyrus burns eggs and Grillby takes off his glasses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's karaoke night at Grillby's and Undyne and Alphys have a newdate lined up for Sans. Will this be Sans perfect match? Will Grillby keep chickening out?

 

 

 Papyrus was not sure what it was, but he knew something was up.

 

They did not need him at the pool today, so he was free to watch as Grillby came by, flame a little brighter than normal, to see how Catsup was doing.

 

Papyrus watched the bartender take off an oddly casual red jacket and awkwardly look around for a nonexistent hook, before Sans took it and threw it on the couch, two inches away from Papyrus. Papyrus did not flinch, something was up, and it was a puzzle he was going to solve…

 

“HELLO GRILLBY,” Papyrus tried to say nonchalantly, while wiggling his eyebrows and abruptly swiveling his skull to face him. “I DO NOT USUALLY SEE YOU OUTSIDE THE BAR, WELCOME TO OUR NEW HOUSE.” Sans eye flashed yellow briefly as he cringed at the head swivel.

 

“bro… seriously i- i’m _noggin_ say this again, _dome_ do that with your head,” Sans tried to smile when he said it, but Papyrus saw a slightly panicky look come over Sans face again. Papyrus could not begin to understand what Sans had went through with the resets. Skeletons could move their bones pretty liberally, heck Sans used to throw a hand at Papyrus whenever he asked for help around the house… but Papyrus knew Sans had seen him... fall in the resets. Sans was doing better now, but every once in a while Sans would have that old nightmare again, where he would scream out Papyrus’ name. Papyrus did not know the details, but the way Sans always stared at his neck… Papyrus had an idea what happened.

 

“….Nice… to see you too… Papyrus…” as Grillby spoke, Papyrus had to listen closely to hear him through the flames.

 

Moving his head as slowly as he could back to its regular position he decided to cheer up his bro.

 

“BROTHER, I WAS GOING TO WATCH MTT, BUT HOW ABOUT I LET YOU TWO _TACO-BOUT_ STUFF WHILE I MAKE SOME QUESADILLAS,” Papyrus’ smile widened to the sides of his head, as Sans erupted in laughter and Grillby let out a snicker. That was better, time to make some lunch.

*********************************************************************************************************************************

Why was Papyrus staring at him, was Papyrus on to him? Oh man, what if Doggo had mentioned something. Nah… Papyrus was just being… Papyrus.

 

Grillby watched the tall skeleton enter the kitchen, and only flinched a little bit as he heard Papyrus drop a bowl on the floor. Sans had told him Papyrus’s skills improved since working at the diner, but as the bangs continued Grillby was starting to get concerned that Quesadillas weren’t exactly a diner food.

 

“so,” Sans started, “you wanted to see the furball?” Sans reached under the couch where Catsup had chased a little felt mouse and scooped up the feline, who contentedly purred into Sans arms.

 

“yeah, he might be a little overweight, but aside from that the vet said he is _purrfectly_ fine. “ Sans looked really cute, with the more of a loaf of bread than a real cat practically asleep in his arms. Grillby realized he was maybe staring at Sans a little too much, and decided to take action.

 

“………..here… little…guy…” Grillby crackled and reached a hand out to pet Catsup. Catsup had other ideas about a giant fire hand touching him. With a graceful flop, Catsup moved from Sans' arms, and ran up the stairs into Sans' room.

 

Well, there goes his excuse for coming over…

 

Sans frowned a bit, “well you _cat_ win them all, Grillbz, sorry about that, though. he must have been pretty hungry to let you pick him up the first time, i guess.”

 

It was true that Grillby never had luck with pets. He didn’t even want to think about the disastrous time he had watched Drunk Bunny’s goldfish. Charley the carnival goldfish from Hell… the fish had survived and was probably swimming circles to this day… but Grillby had barely made it.

 

“so i guess i haven’t had you over before, not much to show aside from the kitchen, but you should stick around for brunch. me and paps should thank you for putting up with some of those dates that have been rampaging though your bar.”

 

As the smell of what Grillby recognized as burnt eggs wafted into the room, Grillby was not sure quite yet that this constituted thanks.

 

“So…why the sudden interest in dating…” Grillby crossed his arms and leaned back hoping he was being casual.

 

“oh, that… honestly it’s more for paps than for myself. thinking i might try a few more times, might get lucky? although i think undyne and alphys are running out of random single internet friends… the last couple… well maybe most of them have been a pretty big stretch…”

 

“…..Yeah…I can’t see you with any of them really…,” Grillby tried, leaning his head back, trying to look cool (Grillby wasn’t exactly a natural at this pose).

 

“oh, ho grillbz, what kind of monster do you see me with exactly?” Sans eye-sockets sparkled a bit and he gave Grillby a mischievous wink.

 

Sans had probably meant to just get a laugh out of Grillby, but words just started to tumble out of Grillby’s currently static-like mouth

 

“Oh… well… someone who is…. more…uh… funny… or maybe science-y type…like yourself… and maybe… uh…likes the playing an instrument…” Grillby was struggling a bit, tip of his flame turning blue. This was getting bad, not only was Grillby muttering, but he could not even manage to mumble words that vaguely described himself.

 

“uh grillbz, come on, nobody wants to date themselves, i’d probably get along with someone a bit more outgoing than that dummy tho-” Sans was interrupted by a CRASH!

 

************************************************************************************************************************************

Papyrus, had been struggling with the Quesadillas for a bit. He had only seen the recipe on MTT, and maybe he was paying more attention to a certain robot than to the cooking. On top of that, he kept getting distracted looking at Grillby in the other room. He’d figured out the puzzle. Something had been off about Grillby lately... but what?

 

Papyrus paused to cut up the cheese into tiny cubes. What else could you put into a quesadilla again? He had cheese, onions, peppers…but what else should he add? He dropped the pan on his foot again,

 

“OWIE!” Dang, he might have lost an HP that time. What was up with Grillby lately? Papyrus had noticed the flame sizzling around Sans the last couple dates, but the two of them were pretty close friends, right? Then again Grillby hadn’t seemed to like a few of them, huh.

 

Ok, seriously what else went in a quesadilla. Bang! He hit his head again. Chicken… but they were out.. eggs were… at least kind of pre-chickens, sure why not, they would work…

 

As Papyrus burned the eggs he recalled how at the card game with the Guards, Doggo had said something funny to Grillby about making a move before it was too late. And he wondered if that meant-

 

OH NO THE EGGS WERE ON FIRE, HOW DID THAT EVEN HAPPEN. Papyrus tossed the eggs into the sink and pulled out some sliced ham instead, cutting it into pieces.   He would never admit it, but he knew he had a lot to work on when it came to cooking, still he had a guest over, a guest that mysteriously started to flicker every time the dates got brought up…ugh this was too distracting… NO QUESADILLA COULD BEST THE GREAT PAPYRUS. Deciding it was time to actually concentrate, he gave Grillby one last look before putting some DETERMINATION into finishing the dish.

 

Papyrus practically caused the pan to explode as he crashed it into the sink, before carrying the Quesadillas to the table like he would a newborn.

************************************************************************************************************************************

Grillby had to admit, somehow the Quesadilla turned out pretty nice. The cheese had melted perfectly, and the ham was odd, but oddly good. The missing burnt eggs were a mystery best left unsolved.

 

Sans had wanted to sell a few dogs today, and Grillby had to open up the bar so they split after lunch. Lately a few human sports nuts had been coming to watch the TV in his bar on Sundays. They could be a little loud watching their…armball… but the business was good, and they always tipped well after a few beers. He was hoping that their presence would encourage a few more humans to come by during the week.

 

Grillby thanked Sans and Papyrus (who was still giving waggling an eyebrow at him) for the food, and headed back to the bar.

 

After opening up around noon, a few of the more dedicated tailgaters starting to fill the seats. To his surprise Big Mouth and Red Bird came in to sit with the humans, and seemed to be getting pumped to jam tiny pretzels and beer into themselves while watching humans crash into each other.

 

One human went up to the jukebox and tried in vain to start it up. Grillby had brought the brick up form the Underground. Sans had fiddled with it, and actually managed to fix it up. It had been working, until last week when Undyne slammed a fist into it after coming back from yelling at Mads. The fish monster swore she would pay Grillby back… Grillby had told her to hold off on ordering a new jukebox since the radio worked enough to get people dancing. Besides, if the jukebox worked he knew Sans would come in and sneak in “What’s new Pussycat” on a 9x repeat again…shudder…

 

Man that crazy skeleton…that skeleton that had let slip wanting to date someone outgoing… How exactly could Grillby be more outgoing? And it was then that Grillby had an idea. He called up Undyne,

“Hey…Undyne….. I’ve been thinking about the jukebox… of how you could replace it….”

 ********************************************************************************************************************************

The week was shaping up pretty well for Sans. Frisk told him that he had gotten an A+ on the planet report, and he had finished up an abstract for the upcoming grant. If it got accepted, he could give a small talk or poster at the Annual physics conference in the summer. It had been a while since he had this much fun with research.

It had been such a good week, Sans was almost not feeling nervous about the upcoming date this weekend. He didn’t think he would be up for another, but Undyne had literally twisted his arm. Off. She had twisted his arm off and did not give it back till he promised to listen to Alphys.

Alphys and Undyne apologized for the last couple of dates. Alphys made him take a six-page test on “Soul compatibility,” and had calculated the top ten ideal dates for Sans. Papyrus came in halfway through and joined in, making sure Sans sat in a chair far enough away from the couch that he could not peek at his matches. Of course they would not let Sans see the list, or how they did the calculation, which Alphys and Papyrus kept squeeing over.

 

“THEY ARE THE TOP MATCH? I KNEW IT” Papyrus exclaimed…paused and frowned while narrowing his eyes, and then beamed as he confirmed with Alphys.

 

Sans was sweating like crazy, who could it be?

 

“Ok, Sans the top person on our list is-” a beet red Alphys had a hand shoved over her mouth by both Papyrus and Undyne.

 

“YOU CANNOT JUST TELL HIM THE TOP MATCH. IT HAS TO BE A SURPRISE.” Papyrus shouted while Alpyhs let out a muffled protest of indignation through his glove.

 

“Also,” Undyne started in a sneaky voice, “I don’t think he should start with the top match.”

 

Alphys, Papyrus, and Sans turned to her, faces a little puzzled.

 

“woah, that took like two hours and you wont even tell me my soulmate? i am _heartbroken_. also a little teensy weensy bit peeved,” Sans let out a sigh.

 

“Sans, after the last couple of trainwrecks…” Undyne caught Sans glare, “...That were 100% not your fault… you need to warm up with someone else. That way if it works, great, but this way if it doesn’t we haven’t... immediately used up our best option…”

 

“can you at least let me see the person i will be meeting this week?” Sans tried.

 

“NOPE, but I think if Papyrus picks who we ask first, you might be more ok with it,” Undyne was just being cruel now.

 

Still, Undyne was sincere, she and Alphys looked expectantly at Papyrus. Sans looked at his brother. Oh god, why did I tell him so many puns today, why didn't I pick up that sock, come on bro be nice... a nice calm date is all I want… Sans prayed to Asgore that his bro would take some pity on him.

 

“OH MY GOD” it was Alphys who exclaimed in capitols as Papyrus pointed to the monster. Undyne’s jaw dropped a little bit.

 

Papyrus winked at Sans and whispered, “Only the best for my bro.”  Papyrus was whispering. This was going to be hell.

 

**********************************************************************************************************************************

Saturday was going to be Grillby’s first ever Karaoke night. Karaoke was pretty popular with humans on the surface, and Grillby had a feeling once word got out it would become pretty popular with Monsters, too. As a businessman Grillby knew that the money he would make would make up for the few hundred bad renditions of “Let it go” coming to his future. Well… he hoped. More importantly, it would be a good way to get humans and monsters to mix it up together more. Even more importantly, maybe some singing would be a good way to open up to Sans.

 

Undyne had helped split the cost of the machine. Now she was helping him build a little raised stage next to the dance floor, to the left of the bar. She was pretty excited about it, and swore she and Alphys would come by this weekend.

 

“….Oh… that would be great…maybe you can bring Sans and Papyrus again…?” Grillby looked at Undyne, who was hammering the last few boards in on the stage frame, while Grillby set up a song list and polished the new machine.

 

“Ab-so-LUTELY Yes!” Undyne Shouted, “After the disaster that was last week, I want them to have a good time, especially Sans.” Undyne hammered in a few more boards.

 

“…Especially…Sans?”

 

“Yeah, Alphys and I actually feel really badly about how the last couple of dates have gone… so instead of going through Alphy’s Undernet friend list we actually decided to think of the PERFECT date for the guy,” Undyne hit another board into place on the scaffolding.

 

“The…perfect date….” Grillby stopped polishing the machine.

 

“Yeah,” Undyne’s smile lit up and she looked really determined, “Well and by perfect date, I mean Alphys made Sans take a personality test and computed his compatibility with every single monster living here. This guy was one of the top five. Alphys is a genius so I knew her test would work, but just in case I tested him when I asked if was up for a date. Guys was howling over the pun I made.”

 

Oh crap… he liked puns…

 

“He’s got a gig with the humans as a model, I mean with a six pack and arms like that I would go for a modeling job, too.”

 

And he had a six-pack. Grillby didn’t have a six-pack. Nope, still a mass of molten fire shaped like a lower torso.

 

“We even got the brother seal of approval. This guy, sorry Jim is his name, turns out him and Paps know each other. The guy helped a little slime monster when they fell into the river in Snowdin. He apparently just dived right in, risking it all to grab the kid,” Undyne was looking pretty confident about this guy.

 

Huh, Grillby didn’t know anybody who went by Jimmy from Snowdin… did he? Great… he was up against a mysterious dashing hero that Papyrus approved of, who loved puns, and was apparently a model with a six-pack. Well... Grillby felt like at least he had personality...and booze, which he took a swig of.

 

Grillby had to make this good or he might lose his chance… He was getting visibly flustered, with his flame flickering in and out. He was so distracted; he didn’t see the sly smile creeping up on Undyne’s face as she looked at him. Deciding to take an extra chance, Undyne used a flash drive to add a few more songs she had bought to the list.

 

Before Grillby could say “Why didn’t I pay attention during music class” it was already the big night. Straightening up his bowtie, he instead pulled it out, maybe he would stand out if he mixed it up.

 

*****************************************************************************************************************************

Sans entered the bar by himself. Papyrus and the girls would be coming in with his date, and the way Papyrus got ready they were absolutely going to make him wait till the last second possible. Sans strolled up to the front of the bar, where to his surprise, he saw Grillby in a black button down with a red tie…and were those thin red suspenders? Still a bartending uniform, but Sans found that the fire elemental looked pretty… dapper.

 

“yo, grilbz! Looking _hot_ ,” Sans pointed a finger gun in Grillby’s direction, and Grillby’s flame got a bit taller.

 

“Hey… Sans… not too bad yourself.” Grillby replied, noticing that Sans was wearing the same button down as last week, this time sans the tie, with the collar popped open just one button. cute.

 

“I… heard from Undyne you are here on another…date…. Who is the lucky monster?” Grillby prodded trying to at least mentally prepare himself before the show.

 

“well, i couldn't even get paps to tell me, so i guess we will both find out soon enough.”

 

Half an hour later, more and more monsters started to come in, and every time the door swung open Sans eye and Grillby’s flame flickered.

 

Undyne entered first, brazenly locking eyes with Sans, while holding the door wide. Alphys came in, followed by Papyrus, whose arm was around-

 

“Hey, I remember you Sans, my name is Jimmy, Jimmy Hotpants. You probably remember me as 'Ice Wolf',” Jimmy Hotpants gave a tall dark and warm smile to Sans as he spoke in a low soft voice. True to his name, Jimmy was wearing tight gold hotpants, and a crop top kind of like one that Papyrus would wear with “bad to the bone” written in gold ink.

 

“hey, jimmy, of course i remember you, if you hadn’t thrown ice all those years that core could have roasted half the underground. oh man is that shirt-”

 

“Oh yeah, I hope you don’t mind, but when I found out I was going out with a cute lil’ skeleton I knew I had to wear something punny,” Jimmy smiled, and offered Sans his hand. Sans took it, and the two grabbed a few beers. Papyrus let out an audible *WINK* and Undyne hi-fived Alphys.

 

Papyrus sat up at the bar this week, turning occasionally to check on his brother. Sans and Jimmy seemed to be having a good time trading wolf and skeleton based puns with each other. Papyrus smiled, knowing Sans was having a nice night for once, and then turned back to chat with Grillby. Papyrus did not see this going long term, but maybe it would inspire a certain someone to do something. Papyrus had solved the puzzle.

 

“SO, YOU LOOK NICE GRILLBY! DID YOU DRESS UP FOR A SPECIAL REASON?” Papyrus tried to casually lean on the bar and look serious as he drank a chocolate milkshake adorned with a mountain of whipped cream, a cherry, a tiny umbrella, and rainbow sprinkles.

 

“Oh… just wanted to try something….new,” the elemental crackled, frowning as he tried not to look at the booths. “…I wanted to wear something nice…. For the big karaoke premiere…we will be starting in ten minutes…”

 

“OF COURSE! I AM SO EXCITED TO SING! YOU SHOULD SING SOMETHING TOO.”

 

Papyrus didn’t know this, but Grillby had been practicing this _one_ song all week. Things involving vocals weren’t usually his strength, but he was pretty confidant he could pull it off.

 

“….Yeah… I put my name on the list….” Grillby was pretty nervous. At least he had practiced the song. Even if he did not look as good as Jimmy “I can somehow pull of skin tight gold” Hotpants…bah… Grillby’s pants were technically hotter than this…he could do it.. oh dang that just sounded weird…

 

“HEY LISTEN UP YA PUNKS!” Everyone turned their head to the talking fish monster. Grillby was letting Undyne MC the event.

 

“So, as you know, it is time for some Kar-a-o-ke! In honor of it being the first night,” Undyne caught Grillby’s eye nervously, “I added a few extra special songs to the playlist.” 

 

Alphys cheered and well, Grillby had been expecting that actually and nodded in agreement.

 

“Let’s get singing!” The bar cheered and the first monster jumped to the stage.

 

Grillby mixed in with the regulars passing out drinks, while monsters sang. There were some really good performances. There were some really bad performances. It was fun.

 

Mr. Slime started with “Part of your world,” which he sang to his blushing Slime wife.

 

Ugly Fish sang a pretty good “Margaritaville,” which he acted out the guitar strums for.

 

Alphy’s would not sing, so Papyrus and Undyne belted out “Don’t stop believing” together.

 

While everyone else recovered their eardrums Sans got up for his turn.

“Sans, you didn’t pick a song,” Alphys whispered

 

“eh, let undyne surprise me”

 

A catchy J-pop song started and Sans got to sing “aye.. aeye, aeey am your little butterfly… green black and blue… making colors in the sky..” Sans somehow did the song justice while the room was a mixture of laughter and shouts of praise.

"Marry me Sans," Drunk Bunny was beside herself.

 

Red Bird sang “Bohemian Rhapsody” with Big Mouth and Onionsan tried their best with “Hit me with your Best Shot.”

 

Jimmy sang “Sunglasses at Night.” And had even brought a pair to wear. He kept winking at Sans throughout his performance, to Sans’ glee and Grillby’s horror.

 

Grillby’s turn wasn’t for a while, and when a human with long hair and- was that Kingiht-Knight again- started a duet he went around with drinks.

 

He just got up with the stage area, when Drunk Bunny grabbed his arm.

 

“I can’t go up Grillbzzz,” she said, slurring his name, “you gotta sing the song for me, okay, okay, okay hunnn?” Bunny was wobbling quite a lot , and before Grillby could refuse, she pushed him up on the stage. Ahh, what song was he even singing? Undyne only paused for a second when she saw him and then clicked the play button. Ok, if Sans could sing a surprise song, so could he. Outgoing, that is what he was going to be. Outgoing that was the definition of Grillby... Hopefully Bunny’s taste I music was better than her taste in... other endeavors... 

The music started

 

Muh muh muh muh…

 

Muh muh muh muh…

 

Oh crap. 

 

“I…wanna.. hold ‘em… like they do in Texas … Fold ‘em… let em’, hit me……I love it…”

 

Grillby stumbled a bit.

 

“L…Love game intuition play cards with sp..spades to start…”

 

No this was dumb he could do this. He knew the words. He took a breath and belted out the next line.

 

“And after he’s been hooked I’ll play the one that’s on his heart! Oh- Oh OH,” Grillby sang moving a flaming fist triumphantly into the air. 

 

Grillby relaxed. If he died from this he would at least die in style. He took a hand and swept his glasses off. The audience gasped. And Grillby began dancing along to the music,

 

“Can’t read my, no he can’t read my Poker face.” He smiled moving a finger to the side of a sly smile, flames dancing with the beat.

 

He posed at the blurry audience, it was easier now that he couldn’t see them

 

“And baby when its love if its not rough it isn’t fun, oh,” and swung his hips. He couldn’t see it but Papyrus’s jaw had never looked more like it was going to fall off his face.

 

The song continued with Grillby giving it his all, Filled with DETERMINATION.

 

And with a final “Muh muh muh muh” Grillby suddenly remembered he was in his own bar, and not driving to work alone. He put his glasses back on. Yup everyone was staring. Time to move the bar back Underground…

 

But then Doggo let out a “Wooh! WOOF! Awesome Grillbz!," and the crowd gave him a cheer as Grillby walked off the stage blushing blue fire.

"Actually Marry Me Grillbzz!" Drunk Bunny would forget that tomorrow.

 

“woah, grillbz, you’re on fire!” Sans gave him a thumbs up, and if Grillby’s flame went any higher, he would set the room on fire, too. Yeah, tonight was awesome.

 

“Hey, but he doesn’t _hold a candle_ to you,” Grillby's flame came back to earth as Jimmy-freaking-Hotpants put an arm around Sans, who shrugged while chuckling. Grillby had heard many variants of that joke before from Sans, and had laughed ever time. Ugh not this time. Grillby sauntered back to the bar

 

“later, grillbz,” sans waved as his friend left him alone with Jimmy.

 

Sans was feeling conflicted...

 

**********************************************************************************************************************

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh man is Jimmy San's one true Soulmate?
> 
> Wish me luck, as I too submit an abstract for a conference.
> 
> Also wow. deciding the song for Grillby was a lot harder than I thought it would be.


	4. In which Red Bird minds the bar and Jimmy Hotpants chooses his destiny

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had a rough day... but I want to post another chapter. This time we have a little bit of drinking. In m mind, Papyrus is a little bit more adult than in the game. I like to think of it, as he is talking to Frisk like he would a child in the game. Anyway, have fun, watch out for light feels from Papyrus.

Darn it… Grillby watched as Jimmy Hotpants leaned across the table and give Sans a quick smooch. Grillby’s flames sunk into a low burn that made him look like he had a fire monster buzz cut. Grillby could not mope forever, he still had work to do, so he got back to the front of the bar. He usually did not drink at the bar, but after seeing Sans laugh at another one of Jimmy’s jokes, he took a quick swig from his flask.

Speaking of usually not drinking, Papyrus was so engrossed in the karaoke that when he reached for his milkshake he accidently grabbed Undyne’s beer instead…

“…Hey.. Papyrus…do you realize..,” Grillby started, while Undyne looked shocked, as she grabbed for her nonexistent beer. Papyrus quickly put it down.

“Oh” Undyne spoke while looking at an embarrassed Papyrus, “haha, Papyrus, you can have it if you want! Go on give it a swig,” Undyne smiled.

“NYEH. I AM NOT SURE UNDYNE, IT ALREADY HAS YOUR GERMS-” Papyrus started giving the glass a glare. Grillby knew from Sans that Papyrus was a bit of a germaphobe/neatfreak, and suspected that if the were still in the old dusty bar Underground Papyrus probably wouldn’t be here.

“Oh come on Papyrus, don’t back down! I challenge you to finish that beer!” Undyne knew how to get Papyrus to do it.

“UH OK. I DO NOT USUALLY LIKE BEER BUT- THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL NOT BACK DOWN FROM A CHALLENGE..,” And Papyrus, pinching the area where his nose would be, chugged half the beer in one gulp, and made a face like he drank poison. Technically, we would be right about that… but did Skeletons even have brain cells to kill?

 

“UGH THIS IS NO WHERE AS NICE AS MILKSHAKES WHY DO YOU DRINK THIS STUFF, UNDYNE,” Papyrus frowned as he finished the glass.

“Well if you don’t like beer you-you can always try something else,” Alphys shrugged.

“Grillby what do you recommend? I’ll cover” Undyne turned to the elemental.

Well, Grillby figured Papyrus was a little bigger than his brother, and could probably handle ONE more drink. Papyrus had a sweet tooth so, maybe something with a bit more sugar. Peach Schnapps, orange juice over ice, leave out the vodka… and add tiny umbrella, just for Papyrus.

“OH MY STARS THIS IS DELICIOUS,” Papyrus smiled and drank the cocktail.

 

***  
Half an hour later, it was apparent that Papyrus could not handle a second drink, even one as tame as the “Fuzzy Navel”.

Grillby had to admit he didn’t think Papyrus would be more of a lightweight than Sans… one beer and a cocktail usually wasn’t a problem for Monsters… but Grillby could tell Papyrus was at least a little more than buzzed.

People will try to tell you there are certain types of drinkers, ones who get angry, ones who get handsy, ones who get happy, ones who get sentimental… Grillby, of course, had seen it all … the angry ones were pretty bad, but there was one kind that always unnerved him.

Grillby watched as Papyrus’s smile faded midway through one of Undyne’s noogies. The skeleton’s eyes narrowed and flickered orange, just ever so slightly…just like Grillby had seen Sans do a whenever he got tipsy. Papyrus rested his head on his gloved hands, and threw away the small umbrella Undyne had put on his scarf.

Staring forward, looking at nothing in particular, Papyrus let out a sigh.

“Hey Papyrus, you wanna sing another round with me, I think Alphys is finally gonna come, too?” Undyne was pretty stoked.

“No, I’m good…” Papyrus said, in an uncharacteristically soft voice. He then closed his eyes for a few seconds, looking like he might doze off. Undyne gave him a pat on the back, before pulling Alphys to the stage. The list of Monsters who had signed up to sing had gone through, and now people were just going up whenever there was an opening. Grillby’s practiced song had gone without him.

For a bit, Grillby served drinks, and Papyrus just sat there, unmoving. Grillby figured he had fallen asleep, when Papyrus started talking to him, again in the uncharacteristic, and almost scarily quiet voice,

“Grillby,” pause, “Do you know a lot of other fire elementals?” Papyrus spoke again, so quietly. Grillby was getting worried, and that was an odd question.

“Well… yes…most of us lived in Hotland… there was always a housing shortage… or the capitol, including my mother and father, my old friend Heats…and many more… and there are many on the surface… although I still somehow live far away from them….” Grillby missed his family every so often.

“Yes, that is true, I have seen many others…” Papyrus paused again before continuing, “Grillby do you know any other skeletons?”

“…Aside from yourself and Sans… I think I have seen one or two other skeletons in my life… but I do not know any…” Grillby’s worry grew as wondered why Papyrus would be asking him about skeletons.

“There are a fair number of skeleton families, mostly they lived near the capitol,” Papyrus continued, “but Sans and I do not know any of them.” Papyrus opened his right eye Grillby saw the feint orange glow along with the normal white eyes.

“See how my eye is glowing, Grillby? Not all Skeletons can do that,” Papyrus glowed his right eye a little brighter, and it looked like an orange flame.

“…That’s really neat Papyrus… perhaps we can be kindled spirits” Grillby knew Papyrus secretly liked puns. Anything to get him out of this funk, even if it was a shriek of annoyance at a pun. But whether Papyrus did not quite hear the pun or just ignored it, Papyrus’s tone stayed flat as he continued,

“My bone attacks are something that maybe half of all skeletons can do…my blue attacks…maybe only a tenth of all skeletons… about six of us can glow our eyes…and then there is my special attack…” Papyrus let out a feint smile.

Grillby could not help it, despite Papyrus’s mood, he was intrigued, “…What is your special attack…?” Grillby leaned in.

“…Well…if you saw it…” Papyrus’s face curved into a wicked smile, and his left socket went pitch black, while his right glowed only orange, “you’d be dead where you stand…”

“…woah, Papyrus… I… I’m s…,” Grillby could only crackle in shock and he backed up from Papyrus.

“NYEHEHEHEH…just kidding GRILLBY.” Papyrus said, eyes starting to come back into focus. “Besides… I AM NO WHERE NEAR AS POWERFUL AS SANS… It would take me a couple actual hits to get you… NYEH HEH… DO NOT TELL SANS I SAID THAT.”

“…well it is still nice to have a special attack... you must be proud to have one…” Grillby did not know what else to say.

Papyrus looked sad again, “Well… if you want I could show you, since we are friends.”

“…You…consider me a… friend…?” Grillby whispered, pleasantly surprised.

“Of course I do, NYEHEHEHEH. Any friend of Sans is a friend of mine. You two are pretty close. WINK.” Papyrus was still frowning, one gloved hand wringing the other. “But I do not really like showing off my special attack to just anyone.”

“…well, you do not have to show me if you aren’t comfortable…” Grillby was not going to step over any boundaries.

“No really, I think it might be better if more people understood… it will just take a minute,” Papyrus looked a little nervous, but he was smiling.

“Well…ok…” Grillby gestured for Red Bird to come over. “…Hey…Red, I am going to help Papyrus for a minute… can you watch the bar…?” Red stepped over the bar giving Grillby a wings up.

Grillby walked outside with Papyrus, to the alley behind the bar.

*******************************************************************************************************  
For once, Sans was having a good time. He had told Jimmy about his work in the lab, and Jimmy was telling him about his emerging modeling career. He really like Jimmy, but something he couldn’t place kept nagging at the back of his skull... did he really like Jimmy… or somemonster else?

“Yes, well I started out trying to get a job as a backup dancer in a few sets, and for some reason the director thought I stood out. He liked my energy. So the guy connected me with a friend in the fashion industry, and I’ve been doing magazine shoots. I have the catwalk down pretty well, too. Apparently my look is popular in Rome- something about a wolf being their symbol. Hoping to make the cut for the Spring collection.”

“woah.. that is insane! congrats! Too think you started in little old Snowdin”

“Yeah, good ol’ Snowdin” Jimmy sighed out, “Sometimes, I am not sure if I should leave or not. I love the monsters here, the Old Snowdin Dog crew are like a second pack… there aren’t many monster out in the world yet, and some of the humans are still flat out scared. But I know that, well- I feel so excited to get out there and just dive into it. I want to try every part of it, you know. I don’t care what it takes, what the destination is, I want the journey!” Jimmy’s eye twinkled, and he looked out the bar window and into the night sky, “How about you, do you want to to go out and explore the world?”

Sans thought for a moment, looked at Jimmy, epitome of a free spirit… thought about traveling the world on a whim… Sans smiled, but the truth was it just a thought, and he answered Jimmy honestly “I think, maybe someday, but for now, I feel like this little part of the world is enough for me.”

Jimmy looked at Sans and nodded, leaned in and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. Sans blushed a pale blue, and Jimmy bowed his head and leaned back, “Sans, it was so nice to meet you, and I hope you felt the same, and that you had a good time. Will you keep in touch with me? I don’t think I want to tie you down in a relationship, but would you be friends?”

“well, i might get bonely without a few good friends.” Sans smiled back. Jimmy stood up, leaving his contact number on the table. He blew Sans a kiss, and with a swish of his tail, he was gone.

It was a nice date. Sans had had a good time. But truth be told, he was happy to let Jimmy go chase his dreams. Shine on you crazy diamond. He closed his eyes and thought for a moment, before Undyne and Alphys rushed into the booth, straight from round two of karaoke.

“S-So how did it go? Is that- is that his number?” Alphys looked at Sans blushing. Even Undyne was blushing, just a bit. He thought about holding out for a bit, after the madness that had been the last couple of weeks, but nah, that just wasn’t his thing. Leaning in Sans put them out of their misery.

“it was actually really nice,” Sans smile would have been ear to ear, “we really hit it off, and yeah… we are going to keep in contact…”

“EEH” Alphys squeaked, while Undyne gave Alphys a high five.

“as pals, platonically as paps would say” Sans finished, while Alphys and Undyne deflated slightly. “no, it is ok seriously. did you know he wants to travel the world. he’s crazy talented, wants to model everywhere, meet everyone, see everything. i am honestly happy here right now, and i wouldn’t want to hold him back. thanks for introducing me to such a cool dude.”

Undyne and Alphys smiled.

“i think i want to call it on the dates for a while though, guys.”

“WOAH, Sans, you just started to enjoy it, you can’t give up now-“ Undyne

“no its not that undyne,” Sans interrupted Undyne for once, “i don’t know… but I have this small feeling…I might like… another monster. so i want to actually give it some thought.”

Undyne’s eyes went wide and Alphys let out another ‘squee’.

“so enough about me, are you guys having fun?”

“Hell YEAH we are!” Undyne crashed a fist into the table as she spoke, “We’ve been singing with good friends, good food, good drinks- heck Papyrus even had Grillby make him a drink.”

“woah there, paps had a drink? where is he?” Sans looked around the bar in vain for his brother.

“Re-relax Sans, he was just talking with Grillby,” Alphys gave Sans a pat. Sans looked up at the bar to see no papyrus and no flaming bartender.

“uh, well.. paps and i are lightweights… skeletons physiology and alcohol just don’t mix very well and…”

“Oh, so that’s why he started acting funny after two drinks, well that’s a bit weird, but he’s and adult he can handle himself, and if not I’m sure its nothing Grillby can’t handle” Undyne waved her hands.

“heh yeah, paps, he just… well you guys know how i get when i drink… let’s just say it runs in the family… but still i guess if he’s with grillbz he’s fine,” sans was a bit worried, but, well his brother could do what he wanted. And if that included going off secretly with Grillby…well…

Sans got up from the booth a little after that. It was getting pretty late. He walked home and opened the door to his apartment, no Papyrus. It had been a crazy night, hanging with Jimmy, chilling with the gang, and the karaoke had been surprisingly fun. He did not realize so many of his friends could let loose and sing. I mean even Onionsan had done really well, and Grillby was…what was Grillby to him? They had been good friends for a while now and…Grillby had looked so cool when he took off his glasses and…

And Grillby and Papyrus were still out, huh…

 

*******************************************************************************************************  
Papyrus cracked took of his gloves and cracked his knuckles. Seeing the taller skeleton without gloves was a little off-putting.

“OK GRILLBY, I AM NOT AS GOOD AT THIS AS SANS, COULD YOU MAKE IT EASIER FOR ME AND DO A QUICK ATTACK? DON’T WORRY I CAN DODGE IT.”

Grillby did not like using his magic. He liked to remain calm, cool and in control. He whiffed a slow fireball to the side of Papyrus. Papyrus’s eyes almost rolled out of their sockets.

“THAT WAS EVEN LAZIER THAN SANS. GRILLBY, I NEED YOU TO DO SOMETHING A LITTLE BIT SCARY FOR THIS TO WORK. DOESN’T FIRE ELEMENTAL MAGIC WORK A LITTLE DIFFERENTLY? DON’T YOU, LIKE GROW…OR SOMETHING?”

“…Well… I do not really…” Grillby stopped, he wanted to help Papyrus out, and this should not be such a big deal. Loosening his tie he took a step back. “…OK Papyrus.” Grillby spread out his arms, smiled and let out a laugh. The flame on his head rose higher and higher, his arms and legs flared up, mixing together. His face and suit were still intact, but he was taller, and resembling a wall of fire. He crackled and could not stop himself from letting out a crazy laugh as his flames whipped high into the air. Ugh, the loss of control was unpleasant.

“PERFECT. VERY INTIMIDATING.” Papyrus smiled, and held out his arm, flicking his fingers. An array of blue and white bone attacks swirled around Grillby forming a spiraling maze. Grillby realized that the bones were moving in a complex pattern, zooming in and out in a maze pattern surrounding him in a pulsing bubble. The bones danced near his flames but never quite touched them, which was impressive as they zoomed in between every flicker. Then, Papyrus held out a fist with his other hand. Grillby was feeling pretty big rush right now, but his flames fell back as Papyrus continued.

Papyrus’s face curled up into that creepy smile, one eye went out like death, while the other burnt a bright singed orange. Papyrus unclenched his fist, and light began to gather over their heads. Grillby’s flames sank in awe as he heard a demonic shriek fill the air as a beastly skull formed in the light. The beast had wicked curved horns, and dead empty eye sockets. It shrieked again. Orange light started to come together, rushing towards the beast’s gaping maw…filling the space with more burning orange. Then, before the light could fully gather, Papyrus clenched his fist. And with a snap, the head fell to the ground, and phased out of existence.  
Papyrus looked and Grillby, who had returned to his normal form, and was visibly shaking. Papyrus, let out a sigh and a quick frown, waiting for Grillby to speak.

“…Papyrus… Sans can do that too?...” Grillby started.

“YES, BUT MORE OF THEM, AND FASTER. HE CAN DO THIS IN ADDITION TO USING HIS SHORTCUTS. WHICH I SUPPOSE MIGHT BE A LITTLE BIT…”

“…Amazing…” Grillby chimed up. “…You two are amazing. You are seriously BOSS monster potential…. It makes me proud that we had you guys protecting us in Snowdin…” Grillby was still trembling.

“THAT IS NICE OF YOU TO SAY GRILLBY BUT ARE YOU NOT SCARED OF ME NOW? YOU ARE SHAKING.” Papyrus looked directly at Grillby.

“…Oh… To be honest… it was a little unnerving… especially that shriek…but I understand a bit, you know? I get like that after I transform my flames… I do not like to… it is exhilarating… and terrifying to lose control…but you… were in complete control… I could tell you stopped it before I was in any danger… And that bone thing was really cool…I have never seen anyone with such good magic control before… to a fire elemental that control… is beautiful…how could I be scared” Grillby was impressed.

“I..I GUESS IT IS COOL BUT it makes me feel sad sometimes.” Papyrus went back to his whispered voice.

To Grillby’s confusion, Papyrus sat down on the curb and put his head into his hands. He had hoped Papyrus would cheer up after showing Grillby his attack

“It just reminds me of why I don’t know many other skeletons…” Papyrus leaned his skull back, “Apparently not many monsters are comfortable with the type of magic we can do… especially the type that Sans can do…” Grillby came around the curb and sat next to Papyrus, who continued,

“Apparently Sans was a handful when he was a kid, since his magic was always acting up. My parents… they thought I would be easier, but well turns out I had pretty decent magic powers too.” Papyrus paused, “They left us outside the capitol orphanage. Sans was five, I was maybe a year. Sans says he thinks I look like dad, but he can’t be sure.” Papyrus leaned over and Grillby gave him an over the shoulder hug.

“I just know that I did my special attack… and they were scared of us…and the kids at school… even our caretakers…that’s why …it’s mostly just been Sans and I… well for a while we had a mentor, well Sans did…but even that…eventually we came here…” Papyrus leaned into Grillby, who gave him a fiery hug.

“…Papyrus…I am… so sorry…. No parent should do that… if they could see how Great you are today… they would regret it…” Grillby comforted Papyrus.

“NYEH…you think I AM GREAT?” Papyrus closed his eyes again, but this time he smiled.

“Yes…you are the GREAT PAPYRUS after all… and I promise I will always be your friend, special magic powers or not.” Grillby’s face glowed with a Jack’o Lantern smile.

“AND YOU WILL ALWAYS BE SANS FRIEND TOO, MAGIC POWERS OR NOT?” Papyrus stared Grillby in the eye.

“…Yes… I will always … be there for Sans…” Grillby wanted to say he’s do a lot more for Sans, too.

“NYEH, THANKS GRILLBY, I KNOW WE WILL BE THERE FOR YOU, TOO,” Papyrus gave Grillby a quick hug.

“WELL I SHOULD PROBABLY GET HOME. IT IS VERY LATE, AND I AM NOT FEELING THE BEST.” Papyrus stood up, and wobbled just a bit.

They walked back into the bar, and Grillby looked around. Most of the patrons were actually gone, with just himself, Papyrus, Red Bird, and Undyne and Alphys. He looked at the clock, it was half hour past closing.

 

Grillby went to the bar, while Red Bird nodded, and walked out.

“…Would you like…it if I helped you home Papyrus?....”

“NYEH SURE, UNLESS UNDYNE WANTS TO HAVE ANOTHER SLEEPOVER.”

“Actually, I think Undyne and I might have a night – a night alone,” Alphys blushed.

“YEAH ROMANTIC sleepover anime MEGA-marathon time!” Undyne pumped her fist in the air, grabbed Alphys in one arm, and waltzed out the door.

Grillby helped Papyrus into his car, and gave him a lift home. Papyrus, was still wobbling, so Grillby walked him to the door, and turned around, but Papyrus grabbed his arm, uh oh.

“HEY GRILLBY, I WAS MOSTLY SURE BEFORE, BUT I THINK YOU ARE A PRETTY COOL DUDE. I THINK IT IS IMPORTANT THAT YOU LIKE MY AND SANS’ MAGIC. I JUST WANT TO LET YOU KNOW YOU HAVE THE ‘GREATEST BROTHER’ SEAL OF APPROVAL WINK.”

Before Grillby could register the though, Papyrus had pushed him off, and Jumped through the window into their new house.

***************************************************************************************************

Sans watched through the window as Grillby dropped Papyrus off at the doorstop. Grillby turned and Papyrus pulled Grillby’s arm, and Sans looked away.

“hey bro.” Sans greeted Papyrus as he stumbled up the steps.

“HELLO BROTHER, DID YOU HAVE A GOOD DATE?,” Papyrus asked.

“oh,” right he had been out on a date, “actually it was nice. jimmy and i are just gonna be friends though. but i really had a good time. thanks for setting me up.” Sans was nervous and he did not know why, for some reason he had to know, “so, uh, i noticed you went off with grillby… you have a good date, too bro?”

Papyrus gasped, “OH ASGORE BROTHER… ABSOLUTELY… DO NOT JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS… I WAS NOT…HONESTLY I… I HAD A LITTLE MUCH TO DRINK… YOU KNOW HOW I GET… AND GRILLBY AND I JUST TALKED…”

“you went out to just talk?”

“WELL… I WANTED TO SHOW HIM MY MAGIC… I WANTED TO SEE WHAT HE THOUGHT SINCE FIRE ELEMENTALS HAVE PRETTY HIGH MAGIC…AS I SUSPECTED HE WAS VERY COOL AND AWESOME ABOUT IT.”

“woah, you showed him your magic?”

“YES, NYEH, PAY ATTENTION SANS. AND HE ACTUALLY THOUGHT IT WAS IMPRESSIVE. ”

“oh that’s great bro,” Sans let out a sigh of relief. Sans felt like he was off the hook.

“SAY BROTHER, SPEAKING OF GRILLBY…” Papyrus, decided to broach the subject with nonchalance and grace. Naturally his skeleton eyebrows would not stop wiggling. Papyrus carried on anyway, “HE SURE LOOKED SUPER COOL SINGING…”

“you mean super hot…heheh.” Oh it was a good pun, but Sans had not meant to say it.

Nyeheheh, this was going to Papyrus’s plan. “YES, HE IS MADE OF FIRE THUS THE HORRIBLE PUN. ANYWAY, HE IS A GOOD FRIEND. YOU SHOULD HAVE HIM OVER AGAIN SOMETIME.” Papyrus’s sly smile grew large again. “ANYWAY BROTHER, I AM OFF TO BED!” Papyrus stumbled into his bedroom. Sans would offer to read him a story, but woah, what a night it has been already. Sans walked in his room thinking about the fire monster. Could Sans have a crush on the guy? Before Sans could think about it any more he went into his room and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.


	5. In Which Grillby writes a letter and fails to deliver it for a week.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grillby and Sans sure are taking a while to confess their feelings. Good thing Doggo and Papyrus are on the case.

Grillby spent the next few hours cleaning up the place. Karaoke had been great for business…everyone had bought a few things, and most Monsters had come before it started, to grab some dinner. A little bit of mess was not too much of a problem. Under normal circumstances he would be pretty content.

How was he supposed to confess his feelings for Sans if he was always with another Monster? Grillby liked to think he had some class, so he would not do that. He could be patient...

Grillby thought about his feelings…when had they started? Years ago, back in the underground, Grillby had just left home. His parents had been a little disappointed in him, he did not want to keep up the family business…making fire puzzles and patrolling Hotland…ugh.

Grillby did not think of himself as a soldier. He was blind without his glasses, and he was too much of a control freak to enjoy the idea of using fire magic to fight. The thought that he could use his magic to hurt someone even a little bit… made it so that over the years he had grown a bit magic shy. Using it to cook on his other hand… taking the wild type of magic and refining it, to make people happy, that was what brought him joy.

His parents helped him get a loan, and Grillby looked for an affordable building, in a place without any competition. His cooking was good, but it would probably be hard to compete with the established shops at the capitol, run for generations by the same Monster Families, each with their own specialization.

So he packed his bags and moved to Snowdin, taking a ferry in a raincoat to avoid the deathtrap that was Waterfall, and moved in to the restaurant that would be his home. It was a pretty small town, he met every within two days, and every one of them came to his grand opening later in the week.

Grillby found the small-town kindness a little odd at first, but grew to love it. Most of the resident had trouble understanding his accent, one local who had lived in Hotland, Red bird, had to keep translating for some of the monsters at the bar. But still, the town was welcoming. Compared to Hotland, where even walking to work involved vent or laser puzzles, Grillby thought this town was pretty chill.

A few weeks into his new life, Grillby was talking to a young rabbit girl, who scrunched up every time Grillby talked, trying to understand him. After he gave her some fries to-go she told him, that guess what? He wasn’t the newest Monster, two skeletons had moved in.

“…oh…what are they like…? Grillby had not met any skeletons before, but he had heard that they were very formal, and tended to adhere to old traditions.

“Oh, what was that, oh what are they like? Gee, I haven’t even met them? My sister says they are new sentries, so I bet they are pretty tough,” The rabbit girl replied, and hopped off.

All throughout the week Grillby kept hearing rumors about the new Skeletons in town, mostly listening since he was getting sick of explaining his accent.

“One of them is huge …. He needed some wood to build a guardhouse, and just cut a tree down with a bone attack…”

“Yeah but the little one… something’s not right about them, him and the tall one, they walked past me, and I made a comment to the misses about the tall one. I then blink, and BLAM the little one was right next to me. What the heck?”

“Still… the tall one has a temper though, I mean he always shouts whenever he talks.”

Woah, these new guards sounded pretty intimidating. Still Grillby’s own mother was a guard, even if these guys were tough, Grillby could handle saying hello, right?

That weekend, Grillby finally plucked up the courage to knock on the door with a welcoming bottle of whiskey. Why didn’t like a friendly drink?

The tall lumbering skeleton flung the door wide open, wielding a giant bone in his hand.

“HELLO?, UHM?”

“…Hello…” the elemental paused, “…my name is Grillby… and I just wanted to… come say hello… and welcome you to….Snowdin. I…I…brought you… a welcome gift… if you would like?” Grillby was a little bit nervous and handed the skeleton the bottle. Papyrus looked at the bottle questioningly in the same hand as the bone, holding it far away from his face, and squinting to make out the label.

“woah, paps, put that thing away you are gonna make our first guest nervous,” seemingly out of nowhere another skeleton appeared.

“APOLOGIES GUEST, I DID NOT MEAN TO FRIGHTEN YOU. I WAS SIMPLY WORKING ON A PROJECT WITH THESE…PLEASE COME IN AND THANK YOU FOR THE FRIENDSHIP PRESENT.” The tall skeleton flung the bone to the side, and gestured for Grillby to come in.

The house was small and bare, no couch, and no boxes remained to be unpacked. The tall skeleton stuck out his bony hand,

“HELLO, I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS, I AM A NEW SENTRY, AND SOON TO BE MEMBER OF THE ROYAL GUARD.” Oh, he was not a guard yet, well Grillby was sure a towering skeleton like him would be one in no time. The other skeleton “the short one” stepped forward. He was wearing what looked like an old lab coat over a t-shirt and sweat pants.

“hello, my name is sans, i uh, well i used to work at the core, but… i am going to try being a sentry for a while. i also work as a judge, and sometimes run a hotdog stand. I have a skeleton on talents.” Sans winked when he said it.

Grillby would have liked to think he slowly developed a crush on Sans over time, as their friendship blossomed or some other romantic story… but he had felt the spark of attraction almost instantly. Grillby’s flame went a little higher as he told Sans and Papyrus about his bar, and how he was excited to meet some people from outside the small town. Grillby told them all about the bar, how his mom was in the Royal Guard, and how he had trouble finding new furniture since he didn’t like to roam around the dump in waterfall… Papyrus eventually left to patrol, but Grillby and Sans talked for hours.

Thinking back, at first Grillby had done most of the talking. Throughout the years, their friendship grew, and Grillby found their roles reversed. Grillby grew to just enjoy sitting with Sans listening to his worries. Sometimes, Sans would get like Papyrus had the other night, go real quiet, ramble about the past… an old mentor… a mysterious accident. Right before they had escaped the Underground, Sans had been really messed up… Grillby had tried to get him to talk about it… but Sans was quiet… only once he mentioned a single word… “resets”…

 

Sans probably didn’t remember it, but Sans had just leaned in and hugged Grillby that night. The bartender held Sans for what seemed like an eternity, trying to get him to stay calm… But Sans was doing better now, happy even, did he even need Grillby?

Grillby knew his crush was growing deeper….he had to somehow talk to Sans again. Maybe he had already missed his chance. Either way, he had to come clean… Grillby got out a piece of paper, started to write, burned it, and got out a second one.

 

Grillby went up behind the restaurant, to the stairs that led to his apartment. It was a bit small, but you couldn’t complain about the commute. Grillby commuted his head to his pillow and went to bed.

*******************************************************************************

It was Wednesday at lunch and Sans was off to Grillby’s before he went to work. He had a lot of observations to do... at work of course. But he couldn’t help but observe Grillby at the front of the bar talking to Doggo. Grillby, was wearing his regular black vest again, but had a red bowtie.

Doggo noticed Sans, and for some reason gave Grillby a friendly shoulder punch, before rushing past Sans and going to sit with the rest of the dogs playing poker with some older human ladies.

“hey grillbz,” Sans, looked up at Grillby and but could not quite meet Grillby’s eyes that day. Grillby was busy pretending to look at the glasses he was polishing, too busy ignoring Sans’ gaze himself gaze to realize.

“…Hello… Sans… recovering from another series of dates…?” Grillby had to know before he did anything stupid.

“oh… yeah… jim and i had fun, but i don’t think I want to just drop everything and follow him on world tour beating off fans… heh” Sans chuckled. Great, Grillby got excited, hand pulling out a piece of paper from his apron. Sans sat upright, twisting his hands

“so i just wanted to ask you about last weekend…” Sans looked pretty serious, and continued, “i heard from pap that he got a little tipsy, and kind of went and showed you our special attack… sorry i know its pretty freaky,”

“..Oh… no Sans… I think its cool that you guys can do that. You are sanstastic after all.” Grillby was blushing a bit and continuing to not look Sans in the eye. Instead Grillby passed Sans a ketchup bottle. Grillby also had a note in his hand. He had been holding on to it all week hoping Sans would come by. He just had to wait for the right moment, slip it into sans jacket…

“ oh… wow grillbz, thanks… I just know that paps, and well and i can get a little… uh creepy when we use our magic… it’s something paps is usually better about, than me actually… but when he gets serious…” Sans fidgeted with the ketchup bottle. Grillby let out a sigh… this was not the time after all, he spoke up,

“…Sans… I admit… when you… or he gets like that… it is unnerving….how your eyes go blank… that dumb thing where you say I would be dead if I saw your magic…which I would like to point out is untrue…”

Had Sans done that in front of Grillby… must have been back Underground…Sans had gotten drunk a few too many times down there…crap. Also double crap if it had rubbed off on dear, sweet Paps.

“… was like a bad line of movie dialogue… anyway…I will tell you what I told Papyrus… if you can control it, like he does with the bones flying in little patterns…tibia honest I think your magic is amazing…especially after…well Paps told me about what you guys went through as kids and…” Grillby finished, and broke his stating contest with his polishing rag to look Sans in the eyes. The elemental reached out a fiery hand which Sans grabbed.

Sans and Grillby didn’t notice that the table of dogs and old ladies were craning their necks to watch.

Sans was smiling at Grillby, “oh, don’t worry about that grills, besides that’s not important to me anymore, Sans paused for dramatic effect, “ if you think what paps can do, you should see what i can do… i’m basically the bonemaster.”

Oh holy hotdogs had he just said that. Sans flung his hand off of Grillby’s as though it were stung and covered his forehead with it. He peeked out through his fingers to see if Grillby had noticed. Grillby paused for a second, before elegantly covering his mouth with his burning hand and snickering. Oops.

“…Well… bonemaster maybe you… can show me your boneing skills sometime,” Grillby joked back awkwardly, trying to decide if this kind of joking would come off as a friend joke. You know, jokes friends could make, as just friends? Grillby started to emit little sparks in consternation, well maybe if he kept going,

“… just ribbing you, Sans….” Grillby tried to recover, picking up the glass again and while rubbing it vigorously. The glass cracked form the rubbing. The paper Grillby had been holding was smoking, good think he had made a copy.

“haha, yeah that one was good, you are on fire tonight.” Sans tried his best, while burying his face deeper into his forehead.

“…Well… can I get you… anything to eat?” Grillby needed to escape to the kitchen. The piece of paper burned to a crisp, and Grillby, as a whole, was turning bluer.

“oh no, i need to get to work early actually, i just wanted some, uh ketchup. Sans grabbed the unopened ketchup bottle and tried to chug it with the cap on, before standing up. The old ladies shook their heads in disappointment and left.

“… ah going so soon, well see you… friend…” Grillby mumbled and swung through the door to the kitchen.

“yeah, later, uh, buddy,” Sans took a step forward and fell through a shortcut.

************************************************************************************************  
Doggo, who had been listening to the sorry exchange the entire time, brought a paw to his head. Greater dog and Red Bird shook their heads…

“Pathetic, “ Doggo spoke up, “at this rate, Ugly will get together with someone before the do…

“Hey now, WOOF, isn’t Ugly with Drunk Bunny after he sang that Karaoke song she liked?” Greater Dog barked.

“oh… well… that was unexpected…” Doggo continued. “But-“

“Also I head that Dummy ghost that Sans fought with…the angry one, I heard he cheered up after going on a date with Madjick. People are calling them Mad squared,” Red Bird chimed in. Doggo pounded his paws on the table,

“Oh come on Seriously?” Doggo rolled his eyes, “Anyone else get together that I should know about?”

“Well, I actually just started going out with this human lady, Violet, who comes to the Football nights. It’s great cause both are names are colors and since you really want to kno-“ Red slipped, causing Doggo to grit his teeth and bang another paw on the table.

“OK, that is the last straw. These two idiots have been drooling over each other for years now. It’s time to bring out the big guns. L.D., did you manage to get Paps’ number yet?” Doggo spoke, looking determined. Lesser dog managed a nod.

Doggo spotted Grillby come back out of the kitchen, and huddled up with the others before whispering,

“Ok call him over, boys, I’ve got a plan.”

************************************************************************************************

Next Wednesday night, it was time for Papyrus to enact the plan. Sans had gotten called in to the lab in the morning, and Papyrus had worked the red eye shift at the Diner, giving the tall skeleton plenty of time for the grand setup. Sans walked in the door, and Papyrus enacted part one.

“SANS, PERFECT TIMING, CAN YOU HELP ME SET UP FOR DINNER TONIGHT, LESSER DOG’S COMING OVER.”

“oh, l.d.’s coming over for grub, cool bro.”

“SANS, IT IS NOT ‘GRUB’ IT IS AN IMPORTANT FRIENDNSHIP DINNER. I, UM, MAYBE YOU COULD BE THERE TOO?”

“course bro, i love your cooking…”

“YES AND SINCE… UM LESSER DOG IS SUCH A… GOOD FRIEND, I THINK I WILL PUT UP SOME EXTRA SPECIAL FRIENDSHIP DECORATIONS. COULD YOU MAKE THE SOUP, JUST FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS AND STIR?”

“sure thing bro” Sans, stepped into his slippers and walked into the kitchen, lazily moving the spoon in little circles around the oversized pot, carefully chopping in carrots, onions, some pre cooked bacon, “i mean, i am glad you are making fiends with the guy, I am happy after that little date mishap you are getting to be so doggone close.”

Sans wasn’t sure how it happened, but Papyrus and Lesser Dog had been hanging out all week. Last night, Sans saw Papyrus enter the bar, begrudgingly letting lesser Dog chew on a bone attack, while Papyrus actually won a hand of Poker. Sans smiled thinking about how much more outgoing Paps had gotten. It was weird to think of Paps as a shy monster, but aside from Sans, his only solid friend over the years had been Undyne. Sans felt proud.

Papyrus was setting the table very nicely, Sans thought. He had a tablecloth with little bones patterned at the ends (Toriel was trying to get Papyrus into sewing), and had a giant Cesar salad in the middle. He had gone all out, even placing candles on it.

“THIS IS WHAT OUR DINER DOES FOR SPECIAL OCCASIONS” Papyrus then placed little seating cards on the table. As the skeleton was folding some bone embossed napkins, his cell phone rang.

Half a ring in, Papyrus picked up the phone, time for Phase two… Sans was stirring the soup, letting it simmer, unaware of his fate.

“OH WOWIE, LESSER DOG IS THAT YOU?” Papyrus was for some reason talking even louder than normal.

“OH, WELL NO OF COURSE HE CAN COME, TOO, I JUST SO HAPPENED TO MAKE EXTRA BIG PORTIONS. NO PROBLEM” As Papyrus talked Sans was shocked to see him bend over and grab a Second large pot of soup from out of the warming setting on the oven.

“OH YEAH, THEY WILL LOVE THE PUZZLE I GOT, I AM SURE, UH HUH, SURE THING L.D., SEE YOU SOON NYEHEHEH” Papyrus hung up the phone.

“OH HEY SANS, YOU WILL NEVER GUESS, BUT LESSER DOG HAPPENED TO BUMP INTO GRILLBY AT THE BAR.” Papyrus said, while suspiciously placing another pre filled card with Grillby’s name on the table…

“uhm, that’s not really surprising bro, since grillbz kind of runs the place, actually”

“WELL, GRILLBY SEEMED KINDOF IN NEED OF FRIENDSHIP, SO LESSER ASKED IF HE COULD SWING BY TOO, YOU DON’T MIND DO YOU?

“why would I mind? but doesn’t grillbz usually run his bar at this hou-”

“GREAT, THEY WILL BE HERE IN FIVE MINUTES!” Papyrus felt bad about PHASE THREE of the plan, but Sans was dressed in sweatpants and a dingy lab coat, so…

“OOPS, SORRY BRO” Papyrus had stirred the second pot of soup, and as he lifted the spoon out to taste it, hand shaking he managed to spill a tiny splash of soup onto Sans lab coat and t-shirt.

“its not a problem bro, its just a small stain…”

“WE HAVE GUESTS COMING OVER. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO LEVEL UP MY FRIENDSHIP WITH LESSER DOG IF YOU MAKE A BAD FIRST IMPRESSION?”

“I have known lesser dog for longer than y-”

“OH NO, I INSIST YOU CHANGE INTO SOMETHING FRESH.”

“well, ok bro, no need to cry over spilt soup, let me just change into something else…”

Sans teleported into his room, taking a moment to scratch Catsup who was curled up on his comforter. Papyrus was up to something, but Sans did not mind playing along, if it made his bro happy. Sans took his shirt off, and fumbled around for a new one to throw on. He was out of clean ones, so he rummaged around the laundry basket, but found nothing. Sans teleported back downstairs.

“bro, did you start a load of wash… with all of my shirts?”

“OH, SORRY BROTHER, IS IT DONE YET?”

“uh, i think the washer is done but they need to go in the dryer…” huh usually Paps was less absentminded about chores. Still Sans hadn’t had to do the wash himself so he couldn’t complain.

“OH NO HOW THOUGHTLESS OF ME! TO MAKE UP FOR IT YOU CAN BORROW ONE OF MY COOL SHIRTS” Papyrus did not like doing this to his brother, but Doggo suggested that Sans try to dress classy. Besides Papyrus had been looking for an excuse to give Sans something like this for a while.

“look, bro I love your sense of personal style, but, i think your clothes are a little big on me…”

“ACTUALLY, I HAVE JUST THE THING” Papyrus ran up and down the stairs before Sans could protest.

“I ACTUALLY MADE THIS FOR YOU FOR YOUR NEXT BIRTHDAY, BUT SINCE I RUINED YOUR OUTFIT, THINK OF IT AS AN EARLY BIRTHDAY PRESENT.”

It was a black crop top, with “COOL DUDE” written in blue Sparkle pen.

“DO YOU LIKE IT, METTATON HELPED ME PICK OUT THE COLOR FOR THE INK?”

“of… of course paps, i just don’t know if i want to wear it if we have company… it’s a little…”

The doorbell rang, and Sans saw Grillby’s flame flickering through the window. Not wanting to dine shirtless with his crush, he grabbed the shirt out of Papyrus’s hands and threw it on… it wasn’t as short as the ones Papyrus wore, but it still showed off his lower spine.

Papyrus grinned with delight, “SANS YOU ARE SO CLASSY I LOVE IT! I BETTER LET THE COMPANY IN”

Papyrus opened the door, and hi-fived Lesser Dog, before giving a flustered Grillby one, too.

Grillby looked out of breath. He was wearing a his work uniform, and considering he had elbow length rubber gloves on, looked like Lesser Dog had grabbed him in the middle of scrubbing plates,

“…Hey Papyrus…. Hey San…Sans.”

“hey, grillbz, looking…hot,” Sans looked at Grillby, whose fire hair seems frazzled, and whose apron was covered in grease, Grillby hurriedly removed the apron and dish gloves… putting them by the doorstep outside, since he doubted the skeletons had invested in a coat rack yet. Grillby was so embarrassed; he finally looked up at Sans, and paused as he noticed a small blushing skeleton wearing the crop top.

“… uh… that shirt… is very…cool” Why was Sans wearing one of Papyrus’ shirts?

“OH GRILLBY IF YOU LIKE IT I CAN MAKE ONE FOR YOU, TOO” Papyrus looked ecstatic, while Grillby looked horrified.

“well paps, i think it could work, but grillbz’s would need no say something else.” Sans chimed in. If Sans had to suffer…so would Grillby… also it would probably look great…

Before Papyrus could begin to think about inflicting more crop tops on people, Lesser Dog’s stomach growled.

“SO THE FOOD SHOULD BE READY IN JUST A MINUTE WANT TO SIT DOWN?” Papyrus gestured to the table.

Sans was ready to hide his outfit behind the table, a benefit of being short, so he immediately sauntered over and sat down at the far right corner. Grillby, worried about making eye contact with Sans, made for the diagonal seat, but lesser dog jumped onto it, gesturing at the place-card on the table with his name. Grillby looked for his, directly across from Sans, and sat down, awkwardly still not making eye contact, hand brushing at the piece of paper that was in his frontpocket.

Seeing that everyone was seated, Papyrus brought out the salad, then to Sans’ and Grillby’s shock, dimmed the lights and lit the candles.

“LESSER DOG DID YOU BRING THE FRIENDSHIP MUSIC?”

Lesser dog had brought a little backpack, with a small CD player. He put in the CD, and the room was filled with Celeine Dion’s “the power of love”. Even Papyrus cringed.

“UH, LET’S JUST TURN THE FRIENSHIP MUSIC DOWN A LITTLE BIT…” Papyrus, swiveled the dial, but Celiene Dion could still be faintly heard. They all got some food and started to dig in.

“…This salad is really good…” Grillby tried to compliment the cooking, although the compliment fell flat as the salad wilted on his form and instantly smoked as it entered his flaming mouth. Grillby did not usually eat too many vegetables for this reason.

“WELL, IF YOU LIKE THE SALAD, YOU WILL LOVE THE SOUP SANS MADE FROM SCRATCH.” Papyrus brought a large steamy bowl of soup in front of Grillby. Grillby looked at it in horror, he was pretty sure soup was at least 90% water

“uh bro, i am pretty sure Grillby doesn’t really like soup.”

“….you say Sans made it…” Grillby looked at the soup, and knew what had to be done…

“uh I only added stuff to a broth, it’s not a big deal…”

“…I can…totally eat soup…yeah…” Sans had helped make the soup, a little bit, which was a big effort for Sans…Grillby would try the soup, even if it killed him

“um…won’t the water…hurt?” Sans tried.

Papyrus, Sans, and Lesser Dog watched in horror as Grillby dipped his spoon into the broth and lifted it to his face. He brought the spoon to his lips… the broth inside it started to bubble and steam, and the soup was dried into a white powder, with bits of carrot, chicken, and onion. Sans breathed a sigh of relief as Grillby put it in his mouth and smiled.

“…Best soup I have ever eaten…”

 

Papyrus smiled, too, it was time for PHASE FOUR.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, are you guys ready for Phase 4? I am! Going to do some more writing tonight, see if I can get it out before lab...
> 
> little bit of a flashback at the beginning... and some more Lesser Dog. Promise the actual Sans/Grillby stuff is coming soon... thank you all for the wonderful support so far. I could not imagine people would read this. 
> 
> Thanks to everyone ins the Sans/ Grillby community too for inspiring me to write!


	6. In which the stars shine brightly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grillby and Sans get a chance to talk.

Grillby took great effort, to slowly and carefully eat the rest of the soup. Well, soup powder. It was actually pretty good once you got used to it. He was going to smell like a garlic-scented candle for a bit though.

After another half hour, everyone had finished their food. Papyrus had whisked the dishes away and to Grillby’s surprise Sans helped scrub, moving them with blue magic, so he did not have to touch them. The dishes were gone and put away in a few minutes, so the four of them moved to the couch. Lesser Dog and Paps in the middle. Lesser Dog caught Papyrus’s eye and winked. Ok, Papyrus was ready….

“SO THAT WAS A GREAT DINNER AS EXPECTED FROM THE GREAT AND TALENTED PAPYRUS. HOWEVER, FOR L.D. AND MYSELF… THE NIGHT IS YOUNG AND WE ARE PARTY ANIMALS…” Papyrus tied his best to do a pose with double finger guns.

Lesser Dog stood up, and also did a pair of paw guns. 

“AND BY PARTY ANIMALS I MEAN WE ARE GOING TO GO L.D.’s PLACE TO MARATHON MTT’s NEW SHOW WHERE METTATON IS A SEXY DETECTIVE WHO MUST SOLVE CASES WHILE NOT FALLING IN LOVE WITH HIMSELF… TRULY A NEW CULT CLASSIC. YOU TWO ARE OF COURSE WELCOME TO COME… ” Papyrus hoped the threat of a Metta Marathon would be enough to deter Sans. He had no clue if Grillby like the Robot, but just in case…

“OF COURSE THE BEST PART IS THAT WE HAVE THE EXTENDED DVDs, WITH THE FOOTAGE OF METTATON STARING INTO THE CAMERA WHILE THROWING ROSE PETALS, AND ALSO THE EXTRA ADULT SCENE WHERE HE-”

“woah there bro… i think you guys can go on without me… i am not exactly a party animal…” 

“…uh…No thank you Papyrus and Lesser Dog… As fun as that sounds… I… have to wake up very early for the restaurant…”

 

“WELL OH WELL, IF I CANNOT CONVINCE YOU… BYE, NYEHEHEH!” Papyrus ran from the table and jumped out the window, sticking the landing with style. Papyrus was actually looking forward to the marathon. Lesser Dog gave Sans and Grillby a thumbs up, turned the Celeine Dione song back up to blast, and followed Paps out the window with his boombox. It was going to be a fun night.

The pair had done their part… 

**********************************************************************************************************

Grillby and Sans were left sitting together on the couch, with a plaid cushion firmly between them. They were not idiots; they had some idea of what was going on. 

“so, grillbz, um, i think they planned this, but i have no idea why.” Sans smile was shifting awkwardly, lying directly was harder than a lie of omission, this was not going to work on Grillby.

“…Yes…me neither…” Grillby paused, his flame was rising higher, he did not want to set Sans’ house on fire… 

 

“uhm, I think my brother is trying to get us on a date.”   
“…Actually…I think Doggo put them up to it.”

They both blurted out the sentences at he same time, and finally made eye contact. 

“why would doggo be involved?”

“…Well…the truth…is… after your second date… he talked to me…” Grillby’s flame was getting pretty high, “…please don’t think any less of me Sans…”

Sans sat there silently, staring up at the bartender. Grillby got out his piece of paper, which immediately started smoking around the edges… but did not burn.

“…I… have had a crush on you for ages…Sans… I am pretty sure the whole bar knows…” Grillby paused and glanced down at the paper, “…whenever I talk to you…my flame goes a little higher… and burns a little brighter…I admire so much about you…I love just talking with you… the way you smile… and how you have always been my friend… how you took care of Papyrus… how you protected the town… how you helped us escape from the underground…and I just… I guess once I saw you on those dates… I have been trying to talk to you about it… you deserve to know how I feel….and I understand if you are not interested…” 

Grillby got up, and started to walk up from the couch, Sans sat there for a second… eyes closed, smiling gently. He looked up, and realized Grillby was headed for the door-

“Grillby wait,” *agh* Sans teleported in front of a walking Grillby, causing the two to bump together. Sans just stood there, still, head down and rested on Grillby’s upper torso, looking down, and spoke,

“uhm, Grillby,” Sans did not usually use the full name, “i, uhm, as i was… going on those dates, i wanted to call them off, because i think i realized i might like you, too.” Sans paused.

“i know you are patient, you have helped me out, more times than you even remember, whenever i felt low, you were a person that…brought me back. you see me as a friend, and not as some freak who can teleport and do weird magic, you have always cared about me. so if you want to give it a shot…” 

Sans looked up and Grillby, who was smiling down at him, and whose flames were almost turquoise. Sans’ face was blushing to match. Grillby lowered his head, and moved in to meet Sans. Sans felt Grillby’s fire mouth on his teeth, he expected Grillby’s “kiss” to be scorching, but instead it was warm and pleasant. 

“…So I think… I would like to give it a shot…”

Sans wrapped his arms around Grillby, pulling him in, and Grillby in turn wrapped his long arms around Sans middle, hands hovering and then resting over Sans spine… which Grillby was surprised to find cold to the touch. Sans let out a laugh.

“oh, huh, i forgot i was wearing this dumb thing, sorry grillbz i am pretty ticklish.” Sans pulled away just a bit.

“Oh… sorry Sans… if you want… we can slow down..” Grillby moved his hands off, mentally noting that Sans was ticklish with a smile.

“no, that was nice, although for now that might be my limit.” Sans moved in and hugged Grillby some more, “we could probably keep this level for a while”. Grillby was surprised Sans was shy, but it did not matter.

The pair moved back to couch, and Grillby planted a chaste fire kiss on Sans forehead, before Sans brushed his fingers against Grillby’s face, and then gave Grillby a kiss/tooth bonk in return. 

“sorry, i don’t exactly have lips grillbz…i can do a few small tricks though… but not yet” 

“…I… don’t exactly have them either… so no worries…” Grillby leaned in and hugged Sans, who cuddled into the elemental, resting his own hand on Grillby’s fiery stomach.

“…and as for tricks… Grillby stuck out a fiery tongue at Sans, who blushed.

They lied down together, Sans allowing himself to be swallowed up in Grillby’ arms, Grillby’s long legs reaching the end of the couch.

Cuddling together, they chatted for hours…Grillby telling Sans every time he had wanted to confess…Sans nuzzling into his chest. If only they had tried this sooner…

“so… do you really have to get up early for work tomorrow?” 

“…Well… actually yeah… one of the regulars reserved the place for a birthday party, so I have to make a cake… and some other stuff…maybe… if you like baking you could come by…?”

“that could be fun, believe it or not I have never actually baked a cake before, Paps prefers ice cream, but if you help me i bet it will be pretty sweet. i mean- i donut think i could mess it up too much “

“…Icing-k we can get you at yeast competent at making cake batter, but I might have to do the decorating.”

“if we start cooking together, it could be a classic love story of boil meets grill.” 

This was going to be Grillby’s life from now on, puns as far as the eye could see, and he could not be happier. Grillby hugged Sans again. The two curled up on the couch, failing asleep in each other’s arms.

***********************************************************************************  
Papyrus came in later than usual around 8:00AM, he was a little tired after the movie marathon with his friend. He stomped into the house, Undyne in tow,

“Papyrus, do you need help grabbing those extra basketballs for the kids or can I grab a quick-?”

For a split second Papyrus and Undyne saw Grillby, curled around Sans, chin resting on the small Skeleton’s skull. The elemental opened his eyes. 

Flames shot into the air and Grillby realized where he was, and that Papyrus and Undyne were looming over him, Undyne looking confused but happy. 

“well, that’s an interesting type of alarm clock..” Sans opened his eyes, only to immediately put his fingers over his eye sockets again. 

“OOH, HEY… SANS…GRILLBY…” Papyrus was grinning from ear bone to ear bone.

“BUSTED once again Sentry!” Undyne triumphantly shouted! Hi five-ing Papyrus.

“I though you were staying up with Lesser Dog all night.” Sans groaned.

“WELL, AS A MATTER OF FACT I DID… UNTIL UNDYNE TEXTED ME TO ASK IF I COULD HELP ASSISTANT COACH TODAY, AND THEN I REMEMBERED I HAD LEFT MY ASSISTANT COACH EQUIPMENT AT HOME…I THOUGHT YOU WOULD BE AWAKE BY NOW GRILLBY…BUT I AM JUST HAPPY THE PLAN WORKED.”

“…So… you admit to setting us up…also what time is it?”

“IT IS EXACTLY 8:02 AM!” Papyrus had a digital watch, since the hands were hard for him to read. Paps poured Catsup some cat kibble.

“…. Oh no… I… need to get back immediately, it’s going to take a few hours to get it ready… and I have no idea if Red cleaned up the restaurant last night…” Grillby was already imagining the piles of grease and broken furniture that could await him…

“don’t worry grillbsz… i think I know a shortcut to your place at this point… it’s a little far, but should not make you too sick…” Sans stood up, yawning, “agggh!”Sans realized he was still wearing the stupid shirt.

“I GOT YOUR BACK, BRO,” Papyrus ran up the stairs, and threw gloriously laundered and regular sans shirt at his brother, as well as his cleaned blue jacket, before grabbing the basketballs from his room and jumping down the stairs. 

Sans rushed to change in the side room, while Grillby hastily got off the couch and retrieved his apron and gloves before Sans re-entered.

“thanks bro, ok let’s get going.” Sans held out his hand for Grillby to grab.

“Well, congrats you, two. Also Sans you should tell Alphys, she will be excited that her quiz worked...CONGRATS DORKY LOVEBIRDS.” Undyne was pretty happy.

Grillby loosely took Sans hand, and then clung, as he felt the floor fall from under him. Before he could finish a gasp, they popped into his restaurant. 

Sans, grinned apologetically, “yeah, that’s why paps doesn’t usually take me up on the whole shortcut thing, but you do get used to it eventually.”

 

Sans and Grillby looked at the restaurant, which on the front end was surprisingly clean, but the back half had a pile of dishes taller than Sans. 

“let me get his, while you freshen up,” Sans oddly found himself volunteering to do the dishes for a second time in 24 hours. 

Grillby gratefully ran up to his room to change, and get a new apron.

***********************************************************************************

When Grillby got back down, Sans had mostly finished with the dishes, and was using a magically enhanced rag to polish the countertop. 

“…That is pretty handy…” Grillby said staring at the sparkling countertop. “Let me help finish those,” Grillby walked up to the sink.

“Grillbabe, after you giving me a heart attack with the soup last night, let me finish these for you.”

“..Grillbabe..?” Grillby raised a fiery eyebrow into his hairline…

“eh, ok, i will think of something else… honey…sugar?” Sans had gotten a few of the baking ingredients he was pretty sure would go into a cake out, and used the opportunity to waggle the honey and confectioner’s sugar in front of Grillby with magic.

“….well, I promise to be …floured when I hear a good one…don’t think this means you won’t get a pet name…” 

Grillby finished organizing the wet/dry ingredients, sifting the flour, greasing the pan, and Sans finished the last of the dishes, using magic to clean them more quickly than Grillby could have imagined.

“… So… I have an opening… for a dishwasher, Sans…”

“well, dishes nothing… maybe I could fit it in.” 

“Anyway, want to learn how to make a cake?” Grillby needed to get started if he wanted to decorate it nicely. 

“Sure, whose the cake for, anyway?

“…Big Mouth’s… 25th” 

“so this cake...”

“…has ...to be huge…”

They got cracking after that, Grillby letting Sans help pour in ingredient while he mixed. They poured seven layers of vanilla cake batter into cake pans. Grillby rolled back his sleeves. It was then Sans noticed Grillby only had one small very clean oven, and many cake tins... 

“uh, grillbz should i stand back?”

Grillby shook his head. He gently placed the pans into a circle on the stone countertop. He drew a magic circle, and a wall of fire formed around the cakes, flames, adjusting down as Grillby moved his fingers inward. As Grillby only moved his fingertips slightly to get the wall of flame, sans couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if Grillby would move his whole hand. The flame wall pulsed slowly, cooking the cakes. Eventually, Grillby lowered his flame wall and spoke,

“…The…cakes…should be done, but… the have to cool for a bit. Unfortunately… I tend to slow down the cooling process.” Yeah, there was a reason Grlliby mostly stuck to fried food…

Next, it was time for the strawberry buttercream icing and lemon jam layers. Sans had fun making the jam, melting the sugar and lemon juice together reminded him of a chemistry project. Sans wondered if Grillby liked his melting technique . Grillby made the buttercream icing, and embellished it with fresh halved Strawberries. They were making a big cake, but Sans felt like the amount of frosting the were making was a bit excessive.

“…OK, now for the part I need two hours for… the decorating…” Sans was surprised when Grillby let out a sigh. “…It was easier when I lived in Snowdin, since it was a little colder there… I tend to… I tend to melt the frosting, so… that’s why I have some to spare… after Red’s last cake…” 

Red’s last cake had also been done on the surface by Grillby… and while Sans , who had been used to Paps cooking at the time, didn’t mind it, he had to admit that there were more than a few burnt/ melted icing roses adorning it. 

“well, grillbz, maybe I can help?” 

“Sans you haven’t decorated a cake before…” Grillby protested, but Sans, touched Grillby’s hand with his own… right Sans seemed to emanate cold… 

“not bad for a non-ice monster, huh?” 

“…How… do you do that…?”

“eh, i’m just a cool guy… but it is probably a side effect of having blue magic. Do you mind it by the way- cause i can turn it down a notch?” Sans reached up and stroked Grillby’s face.

“…How cold can you go?” Grillby had honestly never felt truly cold before, he wondered how far sans could go. Sans concentrated, and a blue aura enveloped his hand, like a mist, it trailed over Grillby’s hand… 

“…wow…that’s pretty chilling…” Grillby’s flame on his hand faded to a pale yellow. He wasn’t cold, but his hand trembled a bit from the sensation. It was cool, but different than ice monster magic…

“anyway, how about i do that to the cake while you decorate?” 

So together, Grillby and Sans decorated Big Mouth’s cake, Grillby carefully adding strawberry flowers to the top. They were done around 11:00AM. 

Sans was somehow covered in cake flour and had spare icing on his cheeks. Leaning in he gave Grillby a quick kiss, trying to get some on Grillby’s face, too, but to no avail as Grillby burned it off. At least the sugary smell was better than the garlic from yesterday.

“…If … you think that is good, you should try… cinnamon… but it makes me sneeze, so only at your own risk….”

“heh, ok, maybe next time, wouldn’t want you take out this masterpiece. “ Sans smiled looking at the magnificent cake, “grillbz, this was- really nice. i had a great time, except for when paps and undyne found us this morning,”

“…we should probably refrain from cuddling in your living room…”

“ but do you think you’d be up for another date, maybe an official one?”

“…Absolutely Sans…”

“alright, i have to make like an atom and split back to lab, but would you like to do something special friday night? i have a fun idea…” 

“…You realize I work till midnight on Fridays…right?”

“not a problem, just get some rest tonight so you don’t fall asleep.”

Grillby nodded enthusiastically, wondering what exactly sans wanted to do at midnight. 

“…It’s a date…”

***********************************************************************************

The birthday had been a success, and everyone loved the cake. The were a bit shocked when they heard Sans had helped.

“…He is actually… pretty good at cooking…”

“I am just happy you two finally got together.” Doggo smiled and Drunk Bunny let out a cheer.

“wooh Sansy and Grillby finally together! Beer’s half off right?” Drunk Bunny tried. Hahaha nope. 

“You guys going steady?” Big Mouth asked.

“…Well, Sans has a date planned for tomorrow… so yes…”

Everyone laughed for a bit and had a great time, Big Mouth took a bite of the cake… half of it was gone…he loved it.  
***

The next morning, Grillby woke up excited for his date. Normally, he was excited for work… but today he just couldn’t stop thinking about the date. He went downstairs, to start with the kitchen… to find a clean sink and a note from Sans.

 

hey grillbabe, figured you wouldn’t mind it if did these for you, your new dishwasher, sans. Sans had left a little flower next to the note.

Grillby smiled. It was pretty sweet of him, hopefully it wasn’t cause he was worried Grillby could get hurt from the water, Grillby had kind of been doing it for years… still it was nice. So was the flower, which was a… tulip… a rose… some blue flower? Grillby was a bit terrible with flowers… he tended to steam them. He found a vase and as quickly as he could pick it up and put it inside. Beautiful... blue flower… like Sans. 

Grillby was a little sloppy today with the orders. He did all right, with the food, but he lit about five different patron’s drinks on fire, including Red’s…twice. Grillby should probably have gotten Sans flowers or something, too. Maybe he could bring snacks? Grillby reigned in his thoughts after the sixth beverage caught fire… 

Before Grillby knew it midnight rolled around. Business had been pretty good, another Karaoke night brought in a ton of Monsters, and a few more humans to the bar. Undyne, Papyrus and Alphys had come by again, Paps brought Temmie Shopkeeper *PLATONICALLY to Grillby’s surprise. The pair were pretty awful singers, but put a lot of energy into it. Just as Grillby called for the last song and round of drinks, Sans walked in and sat down at the booth, looking pretty excited, and holding a case. He was dressed pretty normally, sweatpants, sneaker, but he was wearing a blue knit sweater instead of the regular t-shirt.

“…What’s in the case…?” Grillby wondered what kind of date they could possibly be going on. 

“you will see,” Sans let out a mysterious smile, as Grillby went around collecting glasses, and empty food trays. 

“SANS, ARE YOU GOING ON ANOTHER DATE TONIGHT, SHOULD I EXPECT YOU BACK?” Papyrus brought his empty tray up to the bar for Grillby. 

“uh probably bro, but it might not be till pretty late, so don’t worry if i’m not home.”

“WELL, JUST REMEMBER YOU CAN CALL ME IF THERE IS ANY TROUBLE. AND TAKE CARE OF SANS, “ Papyrus smiled at Grillby, but Grillby couldn’t help notice his eyes narrowed for a half second, “YOU ARE HIS FIRST BOYFRIEND, AFTER ALL… BUT I BELIEVE IN YOU”, Papyrus smiled at Grillby again. 

"ugh, paps..." 

Aww Papyrus cared about his big brother, how sweet. So Sans had definitely not dated anyone before…unless he had a girlfriend previously… Grillby had no clue. Still Sans would probably want to take it slow. Grillby finished cleaning the last table, and Sans held out his hand.

***********************************************************************************

They landed at what looked like a large grassy hill, brush just starting to fill in from the switch from winter to spring. It was pitch dark, so Sans lit an eye up, although since Grillby was basically a walking flashlight Sans wasn’t sure why he bothered. Sans led Grillby to the top of the hill. Pausing to show Grillby some of the blue flowers from this morning. 

“…What type of flower….?” 

“forget-me-nots, so you wouldn’t forget the date,” Sans smiled

“…I would…not forget….” Grillby smiled and walked with Sans.

He opened the case up, and pulled out a small red blanket, and a telescope. Sans sat down on the blanket, and gestured for Grillby to sit beside him. Sans pointed up to the stars, and Grillby took a moment to finally look up. A thousand twinkling lights, shining down, and un-obscured from the blare of the city. It was pretty breathtaking. Grillby let out a happy sigh.

“ its even better through the scope check it out.” Grillby moved his eyes to the scope, sliding his glasses into a better position, while Sans adjusted the ocular slightly. Sans helped the fire monster look through the scope,

“ever since we came up to the surface, i have been coming to this spot to look at the stars. frisk showed me the place, and I think it’s a lovely view… it inspired me to go back into science… to study the stars… if you like it we can take you to the observatory sometime…”

“..This is amazing Sans…” Grillby looked through the scope, and San rested his head on Grillby’s lower arm. 

“did you know stars, up there, are actually made of fire…they emit so much light that if one goes out, it will be thousands of years until we even notice it disappears…”

“…made of fire huh… but they are so…peaceful…” 

“well, makes sense something so nice is related to you grillbz.”

“…oh Sans…” Grillby stroked Sans head, and looked up at the night sky.

The pair spent the a few hours looking through the scope, curled up in the moonlight. Eventually Grillby started to doze off, head resting in Sans lap, who was still staring into the night sky. Sans packed up his things, and gently held Grillby, bringing him back to the bar. Grillby walked up the steps with him, and at the top of the steps, the elemental leaned down and lightly kissed Sans on the cheek. Grillby gave one last wave, smiling and content, before blearily stumbling into his apartment. 

As Sans teleported back to his own room and curled up into the comforter, he knew this was the start of something special.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I am proud of them. First shot at writing romance, I hope you like it. Thanks as always for reading.


	7. In which Grillby is not a botanist and Sans falls asleep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grillby is getting tired working as the bar's only employee, Sans is enjoying his first boyfriend.

Sans woke up pretty late Saturday morning. He supposed Papyrus had gotten back from his Diner shift and had fed Catsup, or he would have gotten the alarm cat treatment. Looking at the new digital clock on his bedside table it read 11:00 AM, Grillby would probably already be up… so he missed his chance to sneak in and do the dishes…but maybe he could sneak in just long enough for flowers and a note.

 

He wondered if Grillby even liked flowers, he had seemed to, Sans noticed the forget me nots had been in a little vase on the bar countertop last night… so probably yes.

 

Still in yesterday’s clothes, Sans took a shortcut back to the field from the night before. He saw the forget-me-nots, but saw a large group of yellow flowers to the side of the hill. Sans picked a yellow flower with goofy wide petals and with a bright orange central trumpet, it was Grillby colored, although sans thought Grillby would probably be a bit more elegant of a flower…

 

_hey tor, flow-about these ones, can you identify them?_

_Oh Sans! You found Daffodils, they are quite common in the spring, how lovely!_

_thanks tor! i should tell you they are for someone special..._

_Goodness Sans, who is the lucky monster?_

_well, you aren’t gonna be-leaf it, but the flowers are for grillby. turns out we’s both had the hots for each other for a while._

_Congratulations to you both. Maybe bring him for Dinner tomorrow?_

_He tends to work at the bar most nights…maybe we can do brunch some day?_

 

_Let me check my schedule... I will let you know later, alligator._

Happy with a pair of daffodils, Sans took a shortcut to outside of Grillby’s bar.

 

After bottling up his emotions for so long in the Underground… this new euphoria he got every time last night he saw the flame laugh at a joke, or every time Grillby smiled softly at him filled his soul with joy. It was the kind of happiness he got from telling puns, or pulling off a good prank, but it was deeper somehow… Sans wanted that feeling to stay.

 

Still it had not even been a week. If it ended the best he could hope for would be that they would be able to laugh it off in a few years…. At least with the other potential dates he had been on it would not have been such a big deal. Sans did not know So-Sorry and Jimmy could travel away- but Sans and Grillby had been friends for years. Don’t date friends- it was a mantra other monsters had told him, other people who had dated more than once in their lives… well anyone in their lives.

 

 

Still, Sans was so happy, how could this be a bad idea? Sans, still in slippers, peeked through the window of Grillby’s new bar. The elemental was serving drinks… with a pop Sans left the flowers in the kitchen with a little note before popping back home.

 

*************************************************************

Grillby found the note “ _hey grillbabe_ ” Oh stars he was seriously going to stick with that wasn’t he? “ _sorry i haven’t bot-any more time to stick around today, got to run to the lab, but should come by later, hope these fill your day with some sunshine Sans_.”

 

A Sunny looking yellow flower had been left on the counter. Maybe it was… a sunflower? Oh man, this was so sweet also when did Sans pop in? Grillby convinced himself he would A. check out a book on flowers, and B. do something equally if not even more sweet for Sans. Grillby’s cellphone buzzed.

 

“ _hey grillbz_ ”

 

“ _Thank you for the flowers Sans! That is really sweet of you. What are they, sunflowers?_ ”

 

Grillby stepped out into the seating area again and sighed. The problem with stepping away was that he bar was completely packed already, and it wasn’t even noon. Business had been picking up lately… and honestly Grillby was starting to feel a little burned out. He used to take Mondays and Sundays off… but the restaurant business on the surface was pretty cut-throat, and Grillby had to stay competitive.

 

Red had covered for him a few nights back, but between Karaoke night, Sunday Armball (?)/ Human sport night, and just generally good business for lunch, Grillby realized he would have to hire at lest one more person… maybe two. Back when he lived in Snowdin, it wasn’t such a big deal to take a day or two off… but now if he got sick…it would not just be one or two regulars that needed a place to go. Grillby’s flame was burning pretty low… he had woken up late and skipped on breakfast, as he went into the kitchen to make some sandwiches his cellphone buzzed again.

 

 

_“glad you like them. no, they are daffodils… i am pretty sure sunflowers only grow in the summer.”_

_“oops…. I am pretty bad with flowers since I can’t usually get too close.”_ Grillby’s flame sparked a bit blue.

Plus, if he hired another monster to help out he might be able to take a day off again once or twice a week…

 

It was around 2PM, when the Saturday lunch rush died down and Grillby had a chance to take a break for lunch. He stirred together a quick batter for a surprise he had premixed… just had to add wet ingredients. Finished with the batter, he let it prove.

 

Happy with his work, but exhausted, Grillby threw a piece of charcoal into his mouth, and munched on it slowly… the other monsters always stared a bit when he did that in front of them… Grillby loved the flavors of regular monster food, but when he was tired, a little bit of fuel always helped. He wondered if Sans would think it was weird? Grillby traced his fingertips into little hearts onto the table… ooh, the table smoked a bit where he touched, that could be permanent… He must be pretty tired if he was having trouble not leaving marks on a table.

 

As Grillby’s break ended, he opened up a drawer that he usually kept spare junk in, tape, scissors… health inspection forms, at the bottom of the pile he found it. Grillby exited the kitchen, … he did not really want to share running his restaurant with others but…well no one would probably be interested anyway. Grillby tacked the HELP WANTED sign to the front window.

 

***********************************

 

Sans teleported into his workstation around noon. One old postdoc and a sad looking graduate student were in, both looking up briefly and waving before going back to their drudgery… while everyone at the lab LOVED science, no one really liked having to come in and stay on a Saturday. A few of the scientists had been a bit nervous when a skeleton in a lab coat started to pop into existence, during a stat session-but the bleary eyed coffee fueled PHDs had bigger problems to worry about that some coworker who had solved the commuting problem.

 

The grad student (Dhara) continued to do measurements on some photos, while listening to her ipod. The post doc (Randy) was shifting in his seat like he was looking for any excuse to stop proofreading his grant for the sixteenth time.

 

Half an hour later, after proofreading his own writing, Sans decided to put him out of his misery. “does the p.i. really need another edit tonight? he won’t read it till monday anyway?” Sans asked.

 

“ugh, you kn-know how David is… “ Randy fidgeted a bit, trying to keep his eyes open.

 

“well, we could take five if you want to talk about it.” Sans offered. Sans was really trying to get to know his coworkers better. He hated to admit it, but he would occasionally mix a few of the humans up, Randy in particular was hard: the tall pale balding human was pretty similar to Robbie, another tall pale balding human, as the main physical difference was that Randy’s hair was still brown instead of white. It reminded Snas of the twin froggits he had met named Hopbetty and Hopberta.

 

“Hey if you come get a coffee with me, I’ll treat?” Randy offered. The old man had taken a liking to Sans after the last lab meeting when David’s donut mysteriously was covered in salt instead of sugar. Randy was senior to the new primary investigatory (aka boss) David, but had a bit too much social anxiety to have been considered for the role, himself. David had published a couple of hot papers as a Grad students, and been given the job of managing a lab where many people, including David had many years more experience. David was a nice guy, but to try to assert himself as a good leader and raise money for the lab he was driving everyone crazy with a string of grant-writing assignments.

 

“sure thing, pal.” The two got up and started walking to the cafeteria.

 

“so how are the kids doing?” Sans hoped this was the one with kids. Sans was going to have to work a little harder… he almost sighed in relief when Randy beamed and started talking about his daughter…

 

“Oh, my- my youngest, Tasha, got accepted into college! I was a little skeptical when I heard she wanted to go into art since it is so competitive, but they took her based off of her portfolio and gave her a part-scholarship. Jenny, my wife, is ecstatic”

 

“congrats! are you doing anything to celebrate?” Sans refilled his coffee, the lab cafeteria was blessedly open from 12-3PM on Saturdays. The coffee was pretty bad, but at $2 a cup, who could complain?

 

“Ye-yeah J-Just a small family dinner out, going to go to Tash’s favorite restaurant, and my mother will probably come down for a few days. I am just reeling at how quickly she grew up, you know how kids are… er do you? Sorry do you have any kids?”

 

Sans coughed a few times on the coffee. Kids… shudder…

 

“ eh, i mean, maybe someday… i’m only twenty-eight, i honestly just started dating for the first time… like a week ago, so maybe if things work out we can have a few… but its weird to think about… cause we just started dating… also I am not sure if we can have kids since they are a different type of monster, you know” Sans moved to the checkout counter

 

“Oh, yeah of course, wow, sorry…sorry I thought you were a bit older, most PHDs are…” Randy trailed off. Sans also figured the guy wasn’t used to determining the age of skeletons. Randy continued,

 

“ah to be young and in love. At twenty- eight my mother was already hammering on me to have kids with my girl… what’s your girlfriend’s nam-“

 

“boyfriend’s name…”

 

“Oh I am so sorry,” Randy, hit his hand against his forehead, and some coffee spilled from his mug “I really shouldn’t assume things, sorry, I keep messing the conversation up, here cookies on me.” Randy grabbed a few packets of some sad chocolate chip cookies in a bag.

 

“oh you don’t have to,” Sans started but Randy had already swiped the cookies.

 

“it’s ok. his name’s grillby. i’ve know him for a long time now. it’s weird since we have been friends for so long, but now that we are together, its really special. i have it pretty bad too, snuck into his place this morning just to give him flowers.” The two scientists picked up their food and headed back for their room. Randy looked up, and tried to redeem himself,

 

“Hmm, you know I can suggest a goof place for a date at least. Since you are relatively new you probably haven’t heard of this place but…”

 

 

********************************************************

 

Three hours later, and the regulars and karaoke groups started to swing in. A few Monsters glanced at the Help wanted sign. This week Dogamy and Dogaresssa were back in town, practicing for the noze nuzzling competition next month. Heh, neither Grillby or Sans had a nose so that might not work… Red walked in. Looked at the sign. Walked up the bar.

 

“So… I see you need some help, Grillby. Maybe, you could toss an old pal an application.”

 

Grillby smiled and immediately handed Red the form.

 

“Red… I did not realize you… were seriously interested… ”

 

“Oh, I love it here, and well, I am not exactly enjoying my current job with the humans… also did you think I’ve just been watchin’ your bar for charity? If you hadn’t put the sign here up I might’ve begged you” Red was currently working as a UPS driver. The deadlines and long hours were pretty bad. Red took the application form, and promised to bring it in tomorrow. Grillby would almost certainly hire him. The formality of filling out the application was a little odd, but if Red was going to work for him, he’d need the paperwork.

 

To Grillby’s surprise Red was not the only Monster to pick up a form. A pair of Bunny teenagers, an older human woman named Cynthia who liked karaoke, and a human man covered in tattoos Grillby was pretty sure he usually saw come in for the Armball games all asked for an application.

 

The weirdest applicant came a bit later. Sans had just texted him that he would be out of work in forty minutes. When Undyne and Alphys had come in again with Papyrus, and the three headed to their now usual spot for the bar, when Papyrus saw the sign and paused. Eventually, Undyne and Alphys walked to the Karaoke sign up sheet, and Papyrus walked up to the bartender.

 

“SO… GRILLBY…”

 

“…Yes…Papyrus… would you like a drink?”

 

“NEVER AGAIN… ACTUALLY…BUT I WAS WONDERING… IF MAYBE I COULD HAVE AN APPLICATION….”

 

Grillby’s flame, which was still running low let out a smoky spark.

 

“…I thought you… or at least until recently… mostly disliked my establishment…?”

 

“NO-WELL MAYBE IN THE PAST, BUT IT IS MUCH NICER NOW… AND… AFTER WORKING AT THE DINER… I… AM BETTER AT COOKING NOW, MAYBE YOU MIGHT CONSIDER ME FOR THE KITCHEN?”

 

Grillby handed the tall skeleton an application, it could not hurt, and Papyrus would probably be fine with some training. To Grillby’s further surprise Papyrus immediately began to fill it out there and then.

 

As Papyrus was finishing the paperwork, Grillby heard a quick **crack** behind him. Sans stepped out of nowhere, smiling at the elemental, bony hands behind his back.

 

“…Hello Sans… Grillby smiled the skeleton.

 

“howdy grillbz. ooh are you ok, you look a bit _burnt out_?” Sans walked up to Grillby and stuck a yellow flower thing into Grillby’s lapel.

 

“oh do not worry about me, besides…Sans… you are spoiling me… let me guess… we are running out of flowers now… this one … must be a the fabled rose?” Grillby moved his hand to quickly put the flower in the water, but noticed it did not wilt at his touch, “…huh…oh it is… not dying when I touch it?”

 

“heh well, actually grillbz, this one is a sunflower, but a silk one. after you asked about them i looked them up during break. they kind of remind me of you… there are a few types that are as tall as you. these flowers, move to face the sun, turning throughout the day, i think you would like the real thing. sadly, i was right that they don’t grow well in the spring…but i couldn’t help but get one for you since you were curious.”

 

“Sans… this is great! I am going to wear it all night... and probabl the whole week…” Grillby gave Sans a light kiss on the cheek, to which Sans blushed profusely

 

“HAVE FUN YOU, TWO,” Papyrus smiled awkwardly and walked to the dance floor, quickly pushing his application towards Grillby.

 

“…I hope you don’t mind the PDA… but you can forgive me…” Grillby pulled what looked like a covered fry basket out from under the bar.

 

Sans opened the fry basket to find what he thought were cinnamon bunnies, except they were shaped like little skulls. Sans smiled and tried a bite.

 

“wow! these are great, and tibia honest, pretty handsome cinnamon skeletons, how did you learn to make these?”

 

“…Gwenda the shopkeeper finally gave me her recipe now that we are on the surface, but she doesn’t want me selling them… for a gift though, it is fine…”

 

Another monster, a very tall Froggit, who was still a head shorter than Sans, hopped onto a barstool and asked for an application.

 

“oh is this what Paps was filling out? glad to see you are getting some help” Sans looked at Grillby, who was still burning pretty low, and starting to smoke. Sans regretted not being able to help out with the dishes earlier.

 

“…I did not think so many…would be interested…”

 

“well, speaking for paps, he is starting to regret signing up for ‘any hours’ at the diner, they are kind of taking advantage of his availability... he’s not the only one. Did you hear Johnny worked on a farm for a week and the farmer tried to pay him in carrots?”

 

“…Seriously… because he is a rabbit?”

 

“yeah, johnny eventually got paid, but it was pretty insulting. Some humans… are just plain jerks… others see us as creatures from fairy tales… but enough of them see us normal that i am sure it will change eventually. still more monster owned businesses might help in the short term” Sans finished a cinnamon skull and smiled at Grillby.

 

“…I am fortunate this bar is working so well…the novelty of a monster run bar is drawing in some customers… but no one has been rude…so far”

 

“well, let’s not think about that for a bit, let’s have some fun,” Sans hoped Grillby could relax a bit.

 

For an entire fifteen minutes more, Grillby and Sans enjoyed karaoke night together, singing Johnny Cash’s “Burning Ring of Fire,” after enjoying some sort of bourbon that Grillby was fond of. Sans did most of the vocals, and Grillby did the special effects…

 

But too soon, the night picked up, and as customers poured in, Grillby did his usual run around, bringing drinks around, and food orders. Sans normally would be sitting in his favorite bar stool, but tonight he tried to help the flaming bartender out a bit.

 

“…Sans… you were working all day… sit down and have a good time…” Sans kept delivering food until Grillby actually picked him up and moved him onto a stool, giving him a bottle of ketchup.

 

“…ooh how romantic, but i feel like you are trying to get rid of me, grillbz?”

 

“…Yes…as a matter of fact … I … have been running this place for a while… I can handle a busy night…” Grillby continued on, bringing out drinks, and crackling at Sans, until the small skeleton stayed in his seat.

 

The night trickled forward, with Grillby barely having time to give Sans more than a fiery wink every so often. Still Sans enjoyed watching Grillby in his element. The way he flawlessly swerved around customers while balancing drinks, delicately handing out a sandwich… did Sans seriously just think the way Grillby handed out a sandwich was cute?

 

Sans was actually pretty tired from today, he had taken a few shortcuts, and worked overtime to finish the grant application… spelling and grammar was not Sans’ forte. Sans closed his eye sockets for what felt like a minute… to open them to an empty bar. He brushed a sticky note off the back of his skull that read “HAVE A FUN NIGHT BRO!”   and included a chibi drawing from Alphys of Sans and Grillby kissing. Shirtless…Grillby had flames coming off in little hearts. Uhh, Thanks Paps.

 

Moving the paper away, Sans looked up, expecting that Grillby was still around. Where had the bartender gone? Sans got up and walked into the kitchen. Grillby was leaned over the table, flame burning slowly, face pressed into the wood, sleeping like a big baby. Sans thought it was cute how the sparks on the table seemed to make Grillby sparkle- holy Asgore- the table was catching fire!

 

Sans ran up to the table and using his magic to lift Grillby up, used his jacket to put out the sparks. Grillby woke up, rotating upside down, to Sans holding his slightly burnt jacket.

 

“….OH Sans, I am so sorry… did I?”

 

“uh, i think you must be pretty tired grillbz, the table was starting to spark.”

 

“…Oh that is pretty bad….but still… Do not worry…the humans made me put in sprinklers… more than the normal legally required amount… so the table would have been fine… but thank you… I would not have liked to get wet....”

 

“would the sprinklers have, hu-hurt you badly?”

 

“…Well… a bit… I can take light rain… but two sets of industrial sprinklers… I may…be out of commission for a week… but… it is better than the business going up in flames…”

 

“grillbz, you are more important than a table, why don’t we get you a stone one or something, like your countertops?”

 

“ …Well… normally I can… control my flames a little…better… I realize I am working too much… I will hire someone by Wednesday…” Grillby looked genuinely upset… control of magic was essential to his line of work, well and to him, personally. He had been lucky Sans had been here. The elemental looked at an upside down Sans, “also you could let me down…” Throughout the conversation, Grillby had continued to rotate in the air.

 

Sans lowered Grillby, but did not remove the blue magic, using it to place Grillby in his arms and hold him up. Sans whispered to Grillby,

 

“would you like a lift?” Grillby nodded, expecting Sans to shortcut to his apartment steps. Instead Sans carried Grillby through the back door, and with some maneuvering up the stairs to the doorstep, carried the bartender to his door before gently setting him down.

 

“Why Sans… I did not realize… you were so… strong… that was fun though” Grillby smiled.

 

“yeah well, if I thought I was tired before, now i am completely out.” Sans had used up quite a lot of his magic reserved today.

 

“Why … don’t you come in… at least have a snack before you go… get your magic back up?” It was close to two in the morning, but a bit of a snack could not hurt.

 

Sans nodded, and entered Grillby’s tiny apartment. It was nice, clean, but cozy, with just a kitchen and a living space. A bathroom and bedroom were closed off on the far end. A big plush suede couch filled the entire living room, with a small TV, and some bookshelves packed with cookbooks to the sides. The kitchen was neat too, but with lot’s in it, bottles of alcohol lined the counter, a spice rack, a set of pots hanging over the stove… Sans smiled.

 

“ah…Yes, I like to…practice some drinks… up here… so for a snack is popcorn ok? I made a few special mixes this morning? We can just sit on the couch if you are ok with that”

 

“sounds delicious grillbz!” Grillby had no idea how ok Sans was with eating on the couch.

 

Grillby grabbed a big bowl and poured in his magical popcorn mix. Grillby carried what looked like a mix of caramel corn, and plain popcorn to the couch and sat next to the skeleton. Sans opened his mouth and Grillby playfully threw a piece in.

 

“woah this is great grillbz, you made it yourself?” Sans sat up and grabbed a handful, chomping it down.

 

“ … Ah yes, it is a special recipe… My dad… actually taught me how to make it, it is a blend of… oh wait… Sans…!”

 

Sans popped a piece into his mouth, not looking, and immediately spat out… a tiny pinecone…

 

“heh, you like pinecones?”

 

“…Yes, they are my… favorite… fire elemental thing…”

 

“open wide!”

 

Grillby did not fully open wide before Sans threw a tiny pinecone into his partially open mouth. It burned on impact on the corner of his smile… still delicious.

 

“cute!” Sans threw a few more pieces, before Grillby tossed some actual popcorn at Sans. The two eventually started chucking pieces at each other, back and forth, a few landing in Sans’ eye sockets, and more peppering the couch.

 

 

The two were giggling like crazy, Grillby fell onto Sans, the warmth of his body filling Sans with joy. Sans wrapped his arms around Grillby, and while the elemental was still letting out a soft chuckle, and Sans leaned forward, and face kissed Grillby, his teeth resting against a fiery smile.

 

Grillby felt the cool calming sensation that was Sans press against him, and leaned in, moving the emptied popcorn bowl to the ground before pulling his own arms around Sans’s small body. The two radiated in each other’s embrace, hot and cold, faces nuzzled together, each enjoying the special sensation the other brought. Sans opened his mouth, and a cold blue tongue traced Grillby’s smile. Ahh it was cold- Grillby shuddered and opened his mouth- but Sans pulled away.

 

“ah, sorry grillbz, this thing has a mind of its own.”

 

“ .. I don’t mind… but we can hold off…” Sans was clearly still uncomfortable with kissing. Snuggling was very nice though, and Grillby would never dream of rushing his friend.

 

“Ah this is a bit personal… but was that kiss I gave you the other night… your first…?” Grillby asked Sans, staring into his eyes.

 

“heh, yeah, you caught me, skeletons, again, not known for their kissing capabilities. was it yours by any chance?”

 

“…Heh… sadly not… I dated a bit when I lived in Hotland… I… have gone a bit beyond kissing… but I want us to… take it easy…”

 

“ A bit beyond kissing…”

 

“…Well… I have… shared my soul… before…” Grillby turned blue, hoping Sans wouldn’t mind…

 

“well, that’s fine, maybe you can show me how someday…” Sans pulled a very shocked and blue Grillby into his chest.

 

Sans stroked Grillby’s head, wisps of fire dancing around his fingerbones. Grillby moved a hand to Sans’s skull, stroking his cheekbones. Like that, the pair lingered, enjoying the soft comfort, Sans the cool bony pillow and Grillby the warm not so fuzzy blanket. The two, whose souls pulsed in rhythm together, fully exhausted from the day, fell asleep embracing.  

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have been having a busy week at lab. I work in Biology, not physics, so I don't know if I can get too much more detailed with Sans' job. Can guarantee that grant writing is a pain though... just when you think you have it right your boss wants you to do a full re-write.
> 
> I hope the cuddling is ok for now... 
> 
> and I like the idea that Grillby really has no clue about flowers, there weren't many varieties in the underground... I think I will have him give Sans rocks or something tomorrow.


	8. In which papyrus stacks some dogs and Grillby learns about flowers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grillby and Sans keep dating, and finally get some time to go out after Grillby swallows his pride and hires some help.

Grillby lazily opened his eyes. Sans was still underneath him, a piece of popcorn resting on his head. Grillby gently burned it up, Sans did not notice the slight heat, or even shift from his position, half sunk into the couch. This was how Grillby’s magic was supposed to be, controlled, careful, friendly fire. Watching Sans sleep, ribs moving in and out, it was easy to do.

 

Grillby checked the time, it was half past nine in the morning, Sunday. He had an hour and a half before opening the bar. Grillby slowly lifted himself of Sans, who had been a pretty hard but pleasant pillow. The elemental snuck into the small kitchen, and looked around the fridge. He had milk, eggs, and blueberries…

 

He carefully mixed his ingredients together, heating a pan on his (tiny) stovetop, and pouring a paper thin layer of batter onto it. Grillby had been itching to try making crepes for a while, they were the kind of food that did not seem worth it when you lived alone… but Sans smile would be worth it.

 

Grillby washed and dried the blueberries, and filled a few crepes with them. As he sprinkled on some powdered sugar, Sans woke up.

 

“…Morning sugar…” Grillby waggled the sugar at Sans, who let out a small chuckle and beamed before sitting at a small checkered table stuffed next to Grillby’s kitchen. Grillby brought the crepes over and smiled his fire mouth at Sans.

 

“this is a berry nice breakfast Grillbabe” Sans grinned earbone to earbone

 

“…I was worried the crepes might fall flat…butter… I believe you will like it…” Grillby sometimes paused a little too long with his jokes but was having fun.

 

“don’t know why you were worried grillby, your cooking is always egg-celent” Sans wished he had a larger cooking repertoire than hotdogs and soup.

 

The two ate breakfast together, Sans still bleary eyed.

 

“…Are you… running your stand today…?”

 

“well, to be honest i think i might have to run it a little more often. the research job i have is grant by grant, meaning they only have enough to pay me as a temp. despite having the equivalent of a doctorate, i’m only making as much as a tech.”

 

“…because you ….are a monster…?”

 

“eh, more because this is just a small university, i am not the only one who is working under their pay grade. if I wanted better pay i’d have to move to a bigger city with a more prestigious physics department.”

 

“…that’s awful….”

 

“well, who knows maybe if i work there long enough i can move up a little and get more hours, besides I like selling dogs,” sans smiled

 

“…well if you ever want to bring some to the bar… the handball humans asked if I had hotdogs, they might enjoy them actually…”

 

“hmm, well, after i hit the park for a few hours, i can swing by with some dogs. also i am pretty sure it is football, grillbz.”

 

 

The pair finished their food, and Sans snatched up the dishes and rinsed them before giving Grillby a double thumbs up and shortcutting out. It was going to be a busy day.

 

 

********************************************************

 

Sans changed into something fresh- his signature white t-shirt and blue jacket, and strolled downstairs and to his surprise saw Papyrus sitting at the table, glumly twirling some spaghetti around with a fork, cat leaning into his feet… it was almost noon and Papyrus wasn’t even wearing his boots yet... Uh oh…

 

“hey bro…,” Sans walked up to Papyrus, deciding he would cheer his brother up, “so, grillbz made crepes for me, they are kind of like pancakes but thinner, i think maybe you’d like them.”

 

“OH HEY SANS. I AM GLAD TO HEAR YOU HAD FUN WITH GRILLBY LAST NIGHT.” Papyrus was still twirling the same group of noodles together, and did not quite look up.

 

“uh yeah… it was a super _hot_ date.”

 

Papyrus stopped twirling the noodles and just let his fork fall.

 

“i, uh, heard you put in an application at grillby’s?”

 

“YES…BUT HE PROBABLY WILL NOT HIRE ME.”

 

“woah, hey, i can’t promise any favors or anything, but grillby is definitely considering you. besides you actually have some restaurant experience, so i don’t know why you are so down on yourself… your cooking has gotten a lot better”

 

“APPARENTLY NOT.”

 

“woah, paps, what’s up?”

 

 

“THE RESTURAUNT I WORKED FOR…” Papyrus dropped his head.

 

Wait, work-ed. Past tense… Papyrus had just been there yesterday, and should have been in this morning…

 

“SO… THE BOSS’S NEPHEW… CAME BACK INTO TOWN… NEEDED THE JOB… AND I AM THE NEWEST HIRE… ANY APPARENTLY I AM ONLY USEFUL IN THE BACK…SO…”

 

“what! That is ridiculous! what do you mean by-” Sans clenched his fist

 

“OH, YOU KNOW SANS, THEY DON’T WANT ME SCARING KIDS…”

 

“that is stupid, aren’t you also a lifeguard and a coach…” Sans started to glow blue. Catsup waddled up the stairs.

 

“WELL, ACCORDING TO THE OWNER NO ONE WANTS TO SEE A WALKING SKELETON AT 5 AM…WHICH THEY TOLD ME AFTER A CUSTOMER LEFT SCREAMING LAST MONTH…”

 

“woah, that is totally on the customer, not you-“

 

“OH AND APPARENTLY I AM ONLY KINDOF USEFUL IN THE KITCHEN AS MY GRILLED CHEESE IS SUB-PA-.”

 

“ **that is it!** ” Sans actually yelled, “i am going to go over there and give them a piece of my-”

 

“SANS-WAIT” Papyrus stood up and grabbed Sans’ hoodie, before he could shortcut over their and give “Sonny” a piece of his mind.

 

“SANS, I WAS APPLYING TO GRILLBY’S FOR A REASON. I KNEW THEY WERE TRYING TO GET RID OF ME… ONCE I TOLD THEM I COULD NOT WORK THE REDEYE SHIFT EVERYNIGHT, THEY HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR A REASON TO LET ME GO. IT JUST…HURT. I MADE FRIENDS WITH SOME OF THE OTHER COOKS, AND… IT WAS SO… HUMILIATING…”

 

Papyrus sat back down in the chair… Sans looked at him and gave him a bear hug

 

“I KNOW…I AM NOT GOING TO FIND MY DREAM JOB IMMEDIATELY. BUT AFTER FRISK, I DID NOT THINK HUMANS WOULD BE SUCH-”

 

“assholes”

 

“WELL…MAYBE JUST A BIT FRIENDLIER.” Papyrus pulled away, and started to eat his pasta again.

 

“well, i am sure grillbz will have you… he could really use some help i think…”

 

“I HOPE HE DOES NOT ONLY CONSIDER ME SINCE HE IS DATING YOU.”

 

“woah. he is definitely not like that. look i am gonna sell some dogs at his place after lunch rush. do you lifeguard today? if not you could hang with me and sell some dogs. Skeleton bros incorporated”

 

“NYEHHEH… IF YOU WILL TAKE MY SUBPAR COOKING SKILLS BROTHER.”

 

 

“nonsense bro, everyone knows you make doggone good food.” Sans noisily rolled his kart into the kitchen and grabbed Papyrus’s shoulder. With a poof they were at the park.

 

*************************************************************************

Papyrus cut little cat ears into a hot cat, and with a toothpick drew ketchup whiskers. Sans thought the ketchup was genius…he’s have to do that from now on, too. The little human girl giggled and danced away with the hotdog.

 

Monsters and humans came in a swarm all lunch, and Papyrus went from a feint smile, to his confident charismatic grin in no time.   As the sun moved to its highest point, Frisk and Toriel came by, Frisk swinging a small stuffed giraffe around, Toriel with a book from the library.

 

“wanna beat our record kid?”

 

Sans took the opportunity to teach Papyrus his famous hotdog stacking trick… one, two three…all the way up to twenty hot dogs on Frisk’s wobbling head, with a small crowd of human and monster children gathering to watch.

 

Papyrus’ eyes were wide as saucers… twenty five…twenty six… twenty sev- Frisk’s eyes went wide, as they let out a sneeze! No record today…before the dogs could hit the ground, Sans caught them with his magic, and floated them around to the other kids in the cheering crowd. The smiles all around were exhilarating.

 

Papyrus cracked his knuckles, and tried stacking dogs on Sans head, and got up to seven, not bad for a first try…

 

As Sans packed up his kart for Grillby’s Papyrus was talking to him happily again. Papyrus decided to go and watch Frisk for a bit, while Toriel got some shopping done. Paps was getting good at reading Happy Bunny himself now… Sans sighed… his little bro had defiantly grown up quite a lot.

 

***************************************************************

 

 

 

Grillby’s flame flickered as Sans teleported in… kart noisily wheeling to the back of his bar. It did not really fit well in the space… but Grillby was happy to see the skeleton. The humans were groaning loudly as their team dropped the ball for a third time in the first quarter, and even Grillby was a bit miffed, he was starting to understand the scoring and rules. A tall burly human, Steve, came up for another drink, and saw Sans behind the bar.

 

“oh could I try one?”

 

Steve asked for a dog, and some of the other humans came for one, too. Sans did not expect to actually sell more than five dogs here… he had told Grillby he wouldn’t come till after the lunch rush for a reason… but it gave Sans an excuse to help Grillby out in the kitchen and prevent his beau from overworking.

 

When the Ebott Eagles lost 6-28 (how could they have missed the extra point!) the humans and regulars mostly filtered out… filled with beer and curses toward the opponents.

 

 

Time flew by and Grillby eventually flipped his door-sign from open to closed, before sighing and sitting next to Sans at the bar.

 

“…Thanks for coming by… I am sorry you did not get to sell many…”

 

“heh, grillbz, its not really the best place to sell em, but i had fun. you should come to the stand sometime, we’d have a blast.”

 

“…well…if I want a day off…I need to train some others first…” The bartender pulled out the application list from under the bar. A good ten monsters had applied.

 

“heh, maybe i should throw one in, too.”

 

“…Sans… I would never ask you to do that…you are doing too much for me already…”

 

“come on grillbz, think about it, I could get a cute waitress outfit and-”

 

“…as….delightful…as that would be…” Grillby rested his chin on his hands and closed his eyes.

 

The two enjoyed each other’s company for a bit, but eventually Grillby’s flame hands began to blur into his head, and the bar got a bit warmer. Sans scooped up the bartender and dropped him off at his apartment, before himself teleporting directly into his own bed.

 

 

****************************************************************

 

Over the next few weeks Grillby started training several of the monsters and humans who applied for the job. The tattooed human with the slick black hair (who went by Dom) knew how to work the bar. Dom had a bartending license and could even do a few tricks with liquid nitrogen… Grillby normally avoided the stuff. He seemed to be good at attracting a crowd… of ever growing lady humans and monsters…

 

Red could tend to the front of the bar as well… taking orders bringing out food, and had also gotten a bartending license to Grillby’s surprise. He was not as flashy as Dom, but was more familiar with the types of drinks Grillby specialized in that the monster’s loved. Importantly Grillby could trust Red to watch the place if he went out…

 

Grillby had a harder time training the people in the kitchen… Papyrus did know how to make the burgers, fries, shakes, and pretzels that kept the customers happy, and he had even gotten San’s dog recipe added to the menu, but he needed a little work to get his skills to move from good to great. Grillby helped him improve, but the elemental knew Papyrus would need a lot of work to cook the food on the stove as precisely as Grillby could with his fire magic. Still Papyrus was doing fine, and was improving rapidly…

 

Cindy the human had experience as a cook as well. The frizzy haired woman was in her late thirties, and was particularly good with the deep fryer. She suggested they add onion rings, which Grilby had to admit was a huge hit. She also was great at waiting tables, and motivated the others with friendly competition. Her and Paps were trying to see which could get more smiles this week…

 

Finally, Grillby had the tall Froggit (Bobby) and the rabbit twins (Charlene and Flopsy) on rotation for dishes and serving. The three were teenagers and could mostly only work part time after school. Aside from the occasional dropped plate, Grillby could not complain. He had the twins on Wednesday-Friday, and Bobby on Sunday-Tuesday.

 

Grillby had Papyrus on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays noon to midnight, Cindy weekdays 12-8PM, Red weeknights from 4-midnight, and Dom Friday through Sunday noon-midnight. He now had the staff of a respectable small restaurant.

 

At first Grillby’s wallet took a bit of a pinch, worker insurance in particular giving him a squeeze… and he was not going to let the servers be paid only in tips… he remembered what that was like… But as the weeks went by and the crew became more self sufficient, he noticed not only that he was less stressed and tired but that the new hires were bringing energy and ideas to the bar. Dom brought in a large group of his friends who liked to dance on Saturdays. Karaoke night and sports day were soon joined by puzzle and trivia Wednesday, a Papyrus/ Cindy original idea. A bunch of the local college kids in particular seemed to enjoy the trivia, especially since the winning team got a free beer on the house (IDs req.).

 

As more humans came, Grillby was getting more event requests, too. Grillby’s fire burned brighter as he prepped some cheese fries to celebrate a local softball team’s victory. The absolute best part was that his bar was becoming a fun place for humans and monsters to mix, with family friendly stuff during the week, and a nice soft dance scene on the weekends.

 

After a very busy month, where he and Sans mostly just shared the occasional sleepy couch visit, Grillby was finally ready to take a few days off each week. He still liked to open, and come back for closing each day… but the Sunday- Wednesday traffic was naturally a little lower, so he could take a day or two off without too much to worry about.

 

Sans had been a complete sweetheart during the whole thing… Grillby was still finding mysterious flowers in the kitchen when he opened up the restaurant. Grillby had kept the silk sunflower in his vest all month. All the real dates, that weren’t just hanging out at Grillby’s restaurant had been Sans’ idea so far, and the elemental was pretty sure that Sans deserved more than that. So Grillby was planning something nice.

 

 

The living flame stroked the little silk flower… if Sans was giving Grillby flowers, he must like them, too. He had been doing some research on the area and wanted to take Sans somewhere nice. So tomorrow morning when Sans came by he would ask him on an actual date. He called the place, and was pretty excited. As long as the weather held up for the day… Spring had been, a bit stressful for Grillby, he was happy to be holed up inside running the bar. He had an umbrella ready, although if it got real bad he knew the date would be ruined. He had given Red the key for the day, and was pretty sure he could trust Cindy and Papyrus to not burn the place down.

 

Grillby looked in his closet, he might not wear the red suspenders and tie combo after all. Drunk Bunny said it clashed with his… hair…and everything. Still he needed to get a few more outfits, he did not have many clothes that were not bar clothes. He found a black t-shirt and a button down that would go with his black slacks…. and black jacket…he needed more colors… that did not clash with him. Well, at least it was slimming.

 

Grillby had an hour before Sans was coming, and he was going to surprise him. He had found a place that sold flowers, too. The man saw Grillby and pointed him to these pretty white lilies… huh the looked nice, sure. Grillby took them to the counter. A small chubby human with curly hair started to check the flowers out.

 

“… these should be nice for a date…”

 

“Wait! You are going on a date? I thought you were going to a funeral. You show these to a pretty lady and she’ll slap you with them…”

 

“...wha… oh my outfit…?”

 

“These are popular for funerals, son. Here, this is better for a date!”

 

Grillby walked out with a bouquet of pink and orange…tulips… he was sure Sans would like these. They were kind of elegant flowers, sleek and pointed upward.

 

“And maybe lose the jacket son!” the shopkeeper’s had pretty good advice, besides this was a bit too formal.

 

****************

 

Sans came by a bit later, wearing a grey graphic t-shirt, with the phrase “hot stuff” written in black sharpie, a Papyrus original, but with nice slacks instead of shorts. Grillby smiled…it was a little ridiculous… but it was cute. Sans looked up at Grillby, oh wow did he linger a bit on Grillby’s shirt… the elemental caught a blushing skeleton’s eye. Grillby sparked a bit- he was perfectly fine with that.  

 

“…Here…these are for you…. although you may want to leave them for the date…”

 

“aww grillbz these are wonderful. What do tulips mean?” Sans blushed a bit more and picked them up.

 

“…uh… according to the florist… pink and orange are… blossoming love and passion… but more importantly…they are flowers… which is a clue to where…we are going…which is a flower garden… would you like to go to Ebott Gardens…” Dang why was Grillby getting so flustered. He was a little rusty at dates after all.

 

The place was located half an hour from the city. Grillby had not quite gotten his driver’s license yet- kudos to Papyrus-but there was a trolley that went there from the city so it would not take too long. The elemental and the skeleton got a few funny looks from the curator,

 

“Uh, sir, are you ok around plants?”

 

“…of course… I can control my fire very well…”

Sans had tucked one of the orange “Grillby colored” tulips into his t-shirt pocket. When Grillby had argued it looked nothing like him, Sans completed the look by asking Grillby for some paper and tape. The bowtie and tiny paper glasses were adorable.

 

The curator continued to glare at Grillby.

 

Sans handed “mini Grillby” the tulip to the elemental who proceeded to not set it into flames. Grillby winced as his doppelganger wilted a little, but the curator was too busy apologizing to notice.

“Uh, well. Looks like you will be fine. Oh and since it appears you are from Ebott, seems like you two also get the local discount.”

 

Sans wanted to say something to the curator, but Grillby just shrugged it off and took their tickets, hesitantly taking Sans’ hand. Sans eyesockets went wide for a moment, and he smiled, squeezing his hand back.

 

It was spring still, so the pair enjoyed the cherry and plum trees, whose blooms flew out into the light breeze. There were rows of tulips, daffodils, violets, and lots of flowers Grillby had never seen before. Sans pointed some of them out, but both of them had to look at the little metal signs posted near each type to figure it out.

 

They went into a greenhouse that had some more tropical plants, Grillby and Sans were excited to see all the different plants that lived on the surface, even the ones that weren’t blooming were interesting to them. The rotating sprinklers went off, and Sans seemed to phase in front of Grillby, saving him from a tiny dribble of water that fell onto Sans’ shoes. Sprink Sprink Sprink… it drizzled lamely.

 

“…My hero…” The pair laughed and kept walking.

 

 

The walked up to a large pond that had ducks and had fun throwing bed crumbs at them from a bridge, although Sans worried a bit every time Grillby poked his arm out over the bridge. Eventually Sans wrapped a bony arm around Grillby’s waist. Grillby smiled,

 

“…Sans… I am not going to fall in…”

 

Sans moved his arm off, before Grillby continued.

 

“…err that was fine… though.” Sans smiled, and moved his arm back around Grillby.

 

“i always forget how warm you are.” Now that Grillby was on the surface, his flames were practically dancing anytime he went outside in the day… something about the sun just made Grillby feel happy, and really brought out his fire.

 

“…ah let me know if it gets too hot…the sunlight makes it hard for me to keep cooler…. But I can manage…”

 

“you are glowing with health!” Sans thought back through last month, the poor guy’s flame had been burning pretty low.

 

“…Well… yes… the sunlight… does seem to be do elementals some good… my father is getting more active again… we were worried he was going to go dormant underground…”

 

“dormant, you mean…?”

 

“…Well fire elementals can live for quite a long time… but without a source of light or heat… or with extreme grief or water damage… we may fade… or burn out…and my father is more of a volcano monster elemental hybrid, so… go dormant”

 

Sans hugged Grillby’s waist.

 

“…but do not worry…. he is doing better now… I was hoping he might come by and meet you with my mom… if you would like…”

 

“absolutely!”

 

“…but I must warn you… he is a little old fashioned…”

 

Well, Sans was sure that would come up eventually, someone in Grillby’s large extended fire family would probably not be thrilled Grillby was dating a skeleton…

 

“…yeah… he only speaks in Old Fire Tongue… and has a few…quirks…”

 

Sans should probably brush up on his Old Fire… Grillby’s accent was pretty easy to figure out at this point, but Sans might have more trouble with his father.

 

“…Anyway… now that we are on the surface… I better than ever…”

 

“wait, so did Living in Snowdin cause you any problems?”

 

“…Well… the worst storms hit me a few times… but I am very young, so… I don’t have many problems… but if we had stayed underground… I would have had to move back to Hotland eventually…”

 

“well, grillbz, i don’t care if we have to move inside a volcano, i am going to keep sticking to you.”

 

The two squeezed each other a little tight, and continued to walk through the gardens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the brief update this week. Will try for another update!
> 
> Did you know I still don't know how to spell restaurant? I have to keep fixing it every time I write it out...
> 
>  
> 
> Thank you all for the continued support!


	9. In which Grillby takes Sans out for a spin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The two continue their relationship, working through some of Sans old troubles, and getting a bit closer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So true story, one of the members of my real life lab keeps his desk covered in tunnels of papers and comes in wearing flip flops. EHS (Environmental Health and Safety have given up after 20 years... they just take a picture of his desk every year and use it as the example of what not to do in their power points...
> 
> I am trying to slowly build Grillby's and Sans relationship up, having them work through little problems and slowly get more intimate. There is a little bit of sadness this chapter, but compared to most Sans stories I think it is alright...
> 
> Next chapter I think we will meet Grillby's parents, I have a pretty interesting/ at least different take on them...

A few weeks had passed since their garden date, and Sans had been swamped with work, going to lab every day of the week, and coming back at odd hours. He had not been able to see Grillby outside the occasional late breakfast in the bar. His PI wanted Sans to publish a paper, and if Sans was going to do this he had a lot of stats to finish, and some more data to gather. He and the other Post Docs were eating three meals in the lab this week, if they stopped to eat…

The stress was something that reminded him of working with Gaster, although the old man had been more of a father figure to him… and had honestly never pushed Sans this hard. No- Gaster had pushed only himself- too often and in the end, too far. 

It was a problem in science, and aboveground it was worse, with the lab’s ability to get a grant directly correlated with the number of published papers… so PIs pushed their lab. A lot of the researchers looked unhealthy in some way, sleep-deprived, burning out, not admitting they were overworking because it is the expected norm… At least Sans did not NEED to sleep. Still, he had just lectured Paps about overworking... 

Sans needed to talk to Alphys, see if she was doing any better in her Biology lab. He was starting to doubt he was cut out for this. His HP was still abysmally low after all. Sans trudged downstairs and threw on his lab coat and flip flops -which he was not supposed to wear to lab- but they did not use chemicals so EHS could suck his bony- splurch. Sans looked down and noticed he had stepped on a plastic container of ketchup, which had released some of its contents onto the ground. There was a note there with the ketchup, which had a little red bow on it.

“Hey Sans, I though you could use the pick me up. Want me to pick you up tonight for a few drinks?- XO Grillby”

Bless Grillby’s flaming heart, Sans took a swig of the remaining ketchup before magicking the spilt bits off the doorstep and into some bushes-Papyrus would live. Sans texted Grillby back, he could probably get out of lab for dinner if he tried…

“sure thing grillbabe. is 7:00 fine?” Sans hoped it would be. He really could use a break. Almost instantly Grillby texted back.

“Great! Tell me your work address I want to pick you up.”

Sans texted Grillby back- his work address, huh? Did Grillby want to walk all the way to his place? Sans texted the elemental back his address.

*************************************************************************************************************************************

Sans had had an awful day. He had gotten feedback on the first draft of his first three figure legends, and he had never seen so much red ink before. On top of it, he had been so tired last night that he had messed up the error calculation on… four different datasets. Between fixing the draft and errors and his planned new experimental data, he did not finish the bulk of his work till 6:30. He just had to print out the new chart his boss had urgently wanted… and the printer was jammed after some grad student had printed flyers out of it…

He teleported back to the office with the new graph, hoping to catch his PI before he left. His PI, David was standing there…with Grillby. 

Most of the scientists who were still here were staring at Grillby, who was standing next to a two thousand dollar telescope and not melting it.

“Oh hey, you got the graph. Thanks for rushing it out, I hope you don’t mind but I will look at it tomorrow. Your friend was waiting outside for you, so I let him in.” David smiled and walked out with his briefcase. 

“…Sorry Sans… I tried to text you… and I went to the door… this is the lab… I expected beakers… and electricity machines…” Grillby smiled at Sans, flame flickering.

“well, vial, that may be necessary in some labs, here we mostly just do electromagnetic and observational astronomy, so that sort of equipment would just take up extra space.” Sans smiled and grabbed put the papers down, ready to go.

“…Oh…so you just have a…telescope?”

“no, i share one. but i have my own computer.” Sans pointed to an old looking PC on a desk covered in piles of papers and coffee mugs. Grillby was shocked that it was not the messiest in the room. An older Japanese scientist stuck his hands into a pile of papers twice as high as Sans and pulled out a donut. San continued,

“so i basically just have this desk, pretty boring, so want to make like an atom and split back to your place?”

Another scientist, Randy, groaned. 

“…Yes… now Sans… I do not want to …Hertspring-Russel this onto you… but we will be driving home…” Grillby had looked up some things about astronomy. Sans was so freaking proud.

“papyrus is picking us up?”

“…Nope… better than that.” Grillby grabbed Sans hand and paused, letting Sans lead him out of the maze like building, and more importantly let sans use his id badge to open doors. 

Grillby had parked his car, a black Honda civic, in a guest spot. He started talking excitedly, his fire blazing loudly as he talked, making it hard to hear,

“…So… In …last month I … lessons… and I…passed the test yesterday…purchased a car… very safe car… waterproof…windshield wipers…” Grillby was practically dancing with excitement, words bussing together,

“… want me… to take you for a spin?” Grillby’s flame was flickering excitedly, glowing a strange purple at the edges.

“woah, grillbz car-gratulations! i call shotgun!” sans gave Grillby a quick hi five and climbed into the seat, buckling his seatbelt. Grillby fastened his seatbelt, adjusted his mirror, and checked the manual briefly. 

“…OK… do not be alarmed… I am going to start it.” Grillby placed the keys in the ignition, and turned slowly. Sans knew Grillby was a cautious monster, but as he backed the car up at a snail’s pace, and crawled the car out of the parking lot, Sans was worried he was being a little too careful. 

The “spin” Grillby took Sans on was at 35-miles-per-hour down a 45 MPH road. It was actually pretty nice to look at the mountain road at sunset, and Sans took the time to unload and tell Grillby about his crazy week. Grillby told Sans all about how he was happy that he finally had time to get his license. He did not need to drive often, but it would make a lot of things more convenient. Plus he could pick up Sans for a change, and avoid those lurching shortcuts...

A few cars honked and passed, but Grillby did not seem to mind. Sans thought it would get better once they reached the town, where the speed limit was actually 35… which it did for about 40 seconds, until Grillby looked at the speed limit sign and slowed to 25…

“uhh, grillbz, you can go a little faster if you are comfortable…”

“…Oh… Sans… those numbers are the speed limits… I do not want to risk going over them…I could anger the human authorities…” Another car honked at Grillby before illegally passing him.

“…Although maybe it would be safer… if I went a little faster.” Grillby sped up to a bearable 30 MPH. 

They got to Grillby’s bar and apartment, and parked in one of the empty spots for residents behind the bar. Grillby and Sans walked into the bar for a minute, a few regulars were in, one or two college kids, and a sad businessman nursing a cocktail. Grillby talked to Red for a minute, before grabbing some fries from the kitchen and pulling Sans hand out the door. 

“thanks for the ketchup this morning by the way grillbz. I see you wanna ketch-up up stairs?” Sans played off of Grillby’s line from this morning.

Grillby let out a snicker and smiled while he led Sans through his apartment door. They sat on the couch and Sans flicked on the TV to see some sort of cooking show.

“ooh what’s this?”

“…Oh it’s a baking competition…the are from some place called Britain… and the bakers compete each week for the best bake… but one gets eliminated each week… it seems stressful… but the people are nice… and I have been trying some of the recipes…in fact…” Grillby hopped off the couch toward his kitchen.

Grillby opened the fridge, and grabbed a few donuts. They had blue icing on them.

“…the are blueberry glazed donuts….I made them a few days ago… required um… choux pastry… I think…try it.”

Sans smiled and took a bite. It was a bit chewier than he expected, but tasted great. 

“choux sure did well” Sans’s eyes lit up as he took another bite. Grillby put an arm around Sans who snuggled into Grillby, and started feeding the elemental French fries. Each fry burned a little as Sans danced them towards Grillby’s laughing smile. 

Sans busy day was catching up to him, he tried to forget the stress of deadlines and complex calculations and just look at Grillby. It wasn’t entirely working. Numbers and timelines, and… He turned on the cooking show and snuggled into Grillby. The warm crackling fire and British puns about cooking were starting to calm him… it was pretty early still... but then Grillby started to stroke his skull…

“aww grillbz…you are too good to me…i think i really i-”

**************************************************************************************************************************

Sans was back in Snowdin…with a blink… he ran into his old house, but nothing was there but a red scarf, yellow petals, and dust… blink… he was back in his bed… no dust here… this time he ran to Grillby’s the place was covered in fire marks… singed tables… flower petal everywhere… Flowey and Grillby had melted together into a charcoal amalgamate…oh Hell… not this one… blink… he was sitting with Grillby in his kitchen while the elemental did dishes, smiling and having a good time but then Undyne texted him…to run… but it was too late.. flowey popped up and dunked Grillby into the sink… San’s teleported… but he was too late… blink… Grillby was thrown out of his bar into the Snowdin river…blink… Grillby was looking worried…polishing one of his glasses… the rest of the town had evacuated…Sans crawled into the bar dripping blood… he reached out a hand to Grillby…blink… Grillby was…sobbing… Grillby’s flame was…

Sans woke up, screaming and in a cold sweat, frost covering his arms, Grillby was standing over him on the couch, the remaining fries scattered on the ground, hands on San’s shoulders, trying to warm him gently. Sans bolted up, before, teleporting back off the couch.

"...Sans... you were shouting m name..." Grillby walked towards Sans.

“oh…asgore.. grillbz… i’m sorry… i thought i was done with these… you must think i’m…i’m crazy…” Sans blinked back another few feet in front of Grillby’s door.

“…Sans!..Wait!” Grillby ran to Sans and grabbed his hand- only for Grillby to feel the sickening lurch in his stomach of one of Sans more extreme teleports. Grillby crashed his face into the bed on Sans’ room, the weight causing San’s bed shudder and crack. Catsup leapt off the bed with a yowl and ran downstairs. Papyrus knocked through the wall and let out a shout from his room,

“SANS ARE YOU OK IN THERE?”

“sorry paps, never better.” Sans shouted back before staring up at Grillby, who had pulled himself upright and straightened his now bent glasses.

“ah… grillbz… so-sorry about the glasses there…” Sans used a spark of magic to try to straighten them back, but it wasn't really the skeleton's specialty. Grillby looked at Sans who was now doing that thing where he was looking through his fingers at the elemental.

“…Sans…it is ok… I just did not wish to leave you… are you ok? was that… the time you mentioned a reset…and your nightmares… is this what you were talking about?” Grillby gently reached for Sans’ bony hand. Sans shuddered and shook his head, but did not pull away from the elemental's hand,

“well sometimes… please believe me grillbz… i get these flashbacks… i used to do research with a scientist…gaster … there was an accident… and long story short… because of that i can remember these resets… “

“… maybe that is why…” Grillby stopped for a second, “…er, sorry Sans… please go on…” Grillby looked Sans in the eyes and squeezed his hand.

“so normally, i only remember a few bad things that happened, but this time i went back pretty far, to some of the more messed up things that happened before fris-er chara gained control. usually i just have flashbacks about pap, but well i remembered some timelines with you… is this too crazy should I stop?” Sans closed his eyesockets, ready for the worst. Well it had been nice to be dating someone…

“oh…Sans… what… what happened in these…timelines?... Also, yes… this does sound a little crazy… but… I also feel… like part of me remembers…”

“ well, i have tried to tell you before in other timelines…” Sans opened his eyes and squeezed Grillby’s hand once more,

“if you believe me…at least a bit… i should explain again… it helps me i think, for others to know. so what i mean by resets is that they are alternate timelines controlled by those with determination… the people with determination, a strong will basically, could re-start the timeline over and over, anytime they failed they could just reset. at first it was these monster named flowey, then a demon named chara, and finally frisk. I could never stop whoever was in control. they could do basically whatever they want… and to answer your question… you usually did not die, at least… at least once the demon gained control…before then…flowey got you once or twice… there is a reason i like to do our dishes... but he got everyone at least once… you helped fight him off sometimes…and when fri-chara got me…i did not know why I went then … but i know why now… i always came to your place…i would reach out to you, but…”

“…but I never reached you in time to tell you…” Grillby whispered, a single magma tear running down his cheek.

“…what? how do you”

“…I… have liked you… for a while Sans… since maybe before… the…resets…” Grillby smiled a bit, Sans looked up in wonder.

“…I don’t remember the resets….like you do… but this explains why I… have horrible nightmares of… things.. happening to you… maybe not just myself…Red was really shaken up one day… he remembers finding Dogamy and Dogaressa… but…my nightmare was always the same… you coming into the bar… I did not know skeletons could bleed…falling before I could tell you…” Sans looked up at Grillby, magma tears streaming from his eyes, and singing the sheets.

“…they mostly stopped since coming here…I always assumed they were just a bad nightmare… but… you… remember all of it…?” Grillby looked distraught. Sans nodded, his own eyes filled with glowing blue tears.

“i told paps and alphys’ about it. and i talked to frisk, which helped. every once in a while, i get stressed though, and i get one. i-i am a little embarrassed honestly, but i guess it is good we talked, and you don’t think i am crazy…” Sans let out a nervous chuckle. Grillby smiled and kissed sans on the forehead, flames warming the skeleton's skull. 

“…well, I am pretty mad for you… so it is ok..”

“grillby that was awful…” Sans chuckled anyway, and held Grillby tightly. 

“…but seriously Sans… of course I believe you… I just hate what you must have gone through… I have only had nightmares about you… but you get them about everyone… look I know you helped Frisk out of the underground… but you really went through a lot huh…” Grillby grabbed Sans and pulled him into a bear hug. Grillby still had a few magma tears running down him, and Sans just let it all out. Their tears hissed against each other with a feint sizzle that stopped after another minute. 

“…Sorry about that… I just wanted to comfort you… and I got worked up too..Well, do you… feel a little better Sans?” Grillby was a little embarrassed, he had burned tiny holes in Sans’ jacket…

Grillby looked around the room, Sans’ room was pretty messy- was that an actual tornado filled with dirty laundry? Also his sheets were now singed… Sans leaned off the bed, and it lurched forward. *CRASH.* One of the bed legs cracked from the previous strain of Grillby and Sans fall into it. 

“SANS WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THERE?”

“nothing paps, uh, i am going to grillby’s place see ya later.”

With a pop and a slightly less gut-wrenching lurch, they were back at Grillby’s house. 

************************************************************************************

The pair let out a sigh of relief and curled up on the couch again. They listened to an old Mettaton re-run and just breathed easy for a bit. Grillby made hot chocolate, and the two started to tell jokes and laugh. This night was going to end on a high note. 

The experience was actually pretty cathartic for Sans. Grillby did not think he was crazy… he started to feel a warm happiness as he moved closer to the flame. It was always nice to tell people his problems, he just ha a hard time doing it. Grillby really had made him feel better, too. The thought of the flame dreaming about him, because he cared...

Sans planted his bony smile on Grillby’s mouth, a skeleton kiss. There was something about Grillby that just drove sans crazy. They stayed like that for a bit, eventually Sans stuck out a magic blue tongue and the elemental felt an icy cold sensation lick the edges of his mouth.

Grillby moved his fiery head back.

“…Sans…Are you ready for this? After today?...” Sans smiled and replied,

“i’ve been ready … let’s forget about earlier…” Sans leaned in again, blue tongue getting singed slightly as it met a grillby’s own fiery one…

The two kissed passionately, hugging each other tightly. Sans, lay on top of the elemental, grabbing the top of Grillby’s fiery head. Grillby moved his hands down Sans’s running them down his spine, grabbing tightly onto Sans’ upper hipbones. The two made out like they were teenagers, rolling off the couch, giggling, and taking way too much advantage of the fact that neither technically had to breathe…

After a good half hour of shamelessly rolling around Grillby’s carpet sucking each other’s faces San’s pulled away.

“woah… grillbabe… that was the most intense thing…” Sans was panting a bit. Grillby smiled mischievously…

“…Round two…?” Grillby sounded hopeful.

“oh man, i have to go in to work tomorrow.” Sans nuzzled Grillby. “i should probably catch some z’s.”

“…Right…oh…Sorry about your bed…”

“well, guess i will just have to sleep somewhere else tonight.” Sans smiled at the elemental, and attempted to wink sexily.

“…after all that?...”

“uh, if you don’t mind. it might be nice to curl up with someone else actually…. maybe a big brave fire elemental type who can scare the nightmares off” Sans nuzzled Grillby, teasing him with a quick kiss.

Grillby kind of wanted a cuddle buddy after all of that, too. 

“…consider me... your knight-knight in shining armor…” Grillby struck a pose. His glasses fell off his face, and he had to move his hand around on the floor to find them… it was the most precious thing. Grillby recovered,

“well, after my date with knight-knight, maybe not?”

“Ok, fine, but no falling asleep on the couch again… if you don’t mind… that is…”

“i don’t mind”

Sans followed Grillby to his bedroom. It was a bit cramped, like the rest of the apartment; a nice queen sized bed was in the middle, with a plush red comforter. The bed took up most of the space. There was a mirror against the back wall, and a bureau, which Sans noticed has some of the flowers he had given Grillby, and a few photographs. One on the far end was of what must be his parents and family, a large blur of too bright light blended most of them together. There was also what looked like a cell phone print out of a selfie of Sans and Grillby at the flower park. 

While Sans had looked at the photographs, and took off his jacket and t-shirt. He was wearing the usual gym shorts, which were pretty comfy for bed. Grillby had unbuttoned his shirt and thrown his work pants off. Sans noticed and turned a blue color as he tried not to stare at Grillby’s flaming chest... Sans eyes slipped downward, damn Grillby was hot, but oh man those magenta-orange plaid boxers looked really bad on the guy. Like the orange was different than Grillby’s orange… magenta was just…no why…the clashing was awful, who even designed these things? Grillby caught Sans staring intently at his lower abdomen…

“…uh… like what you see?...” 

“oh, heh, sorry it is fine, i, um , you look really great…wow, just… ” smooth Sans, smooth. 

Grillby looked pleased with himself as he hopped over to turn the light off. The elemental put his glasses on the bureau and stumbled into bed. Sans decided that if there relationship progressed further he was getting Grillby some non-clashing shorts.

“...you look cute… too.” Grillby poked Sans’ shoulder. 

“ugh, I’m just all bones.” Sans was not entirely sure what Grillby found attractive about him, but well… 

“… well, I;m just all flames… besides… you are so smol…” Grillby snuggled into Sans. Well, maybe that was it. Sans had never been too sensitive about his height… it is what it is… but Grillby seemed to like it. Without either of them wearing a shirt, his flames merged into Sans… dancing around his ribcage…

“hehehheh.! that tickles grillbz,” Sans bones were rattling as he shook with laughter.

“…Sorry my flames are a bit… jittery… tonight.... why are you so cold…?”

“creepy chilling skeleton magic, it’s a defense against big brutish flame monsters.”

“…I thought I was… your knight in shining armor…?”

“well, my hero would not be tickling me, but i admit you are shining pretty brightly…”

“… You are too…” Grillby snuggled into Sans, who was glowing a little bit blue.

“well, i am pretty happy right now…” Sans leaned into Grillby’s flame more, eventually landing on his solid chest. Sans moved his finger bones towards the elemental’s fiery neck and made little tickling motions. 

“…Not ticklish…” Grillby’s flame was going an odd green yellow, Sans suspected he was not being entirely honest…

“hmm… how about… here…” Sans went for under Grillby’s arms…nothing… but Grillby’s flame was even more green…

“maybe…” Sans moved down to Grillby’s sides. 

“…Gwahahaha…Sans!” Grillby’s entire body shot out with flames, and he turned a yellow green. The elemental rolled on top of Sans and tickled his ribs back. They eventually stopped harassing each other and the elemental let himself just merge into Sans again, who had his arms wrapped around Grillby...

“hehheheh…this is nice Grillbz….” Grillby watched Sans fall asleep, this time peacefully drifting off…


	10. In which Sans makes dinner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans meets Grillby's parents, Grillby self reflects.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is my experience with brothers... 
> 
> Thank you everyone for all of your support! I hope I get some more free time, I want to finish another chapter this week.
> 
> Assuming my internet does not give out again...

*******************************************************************************

“SO… YOU HAD ANOTHER SLEEPOVER WITH GRILLBY.”

“well, yeah, bro.”

“HAVE FUN BONING?”

“oh. My. Asgore. no. for your information we were not doing that.” Whenever Sans got really flustered he started using capitols.

 

“SO WHY WAS YOUR BED BROKEN? AND SMELLING LIKE ASH WHEN I GRABBED THE LAUNDRY”

“look bro, i just need to stop teleporting onto it. also you should stop just doing my laundry i can handle it. anyway, who taught you that phrase.” Sans would start doing his own laundry if it meant a little privacy.

“DOM. APPARENTLY IT IS HUMAN SLANG FOR-“

“nope. Just Nope.”

“LOOK SANS THERE IS NO SHAME IN HAVING SOUL S-”

“do you want to hang out today or not?”

“OK OK, I WILL STOP. BUT REALLY SANS I AM JUST RIBBING YOU.”

Having a brother in a nutshell. Sans hopped into Papyrus’s convertible and Paps headed for the mall again. With the top down, and the wind blowing around their heads one would think there would be little chance of conversation. Still Papyrus’s loud voice found a way. Papyrus was still working at Grillby’s and the school with Undyne he had decided he no longer wanted to lifeguard.

“I STARTED SOMETHING ELSE ON SUNDAYS.” Papyrus turned left onto the street with the mall.

“oh cool what is it bro?” Sans was shouting loudly.

“I STARTED MODELING. CINDY TOLD ME SHE MODELS AT THIS PLACE, AND THAT THEY ARE ALWAYS LOOKING FOR NEW PEOPLE WITH DIFFERENT BODY TYPES... THE GUY RUNNING IT WAS SUPER EXCITED WHEN I ASKED SO I TRIED IT OUT”

“woah, as in nude modeling? that’s awesome bro, but don’t think i could ever do that. “

“HONESTLY, IT HELPS THAT THEY ARE ALL HUMANS. IT IS A LITTLE WEIRD, BUT I AM PRETTY SURE IT DOESN’T EVEN REGISTER TO THEM THAT I AM NAKED… OR THAT I MIGHT BE UNCOMFORTABLE…”

“ugh…that’s not really cool…”

“WELL WE WILL SEE HOW IT GOES… IF IT IS WEIRD AGAIN NEXT WEEK I MIGHT STOP AT THAT LOCATION. BUT I LIKE MODELLING SO I MIGHT TRY AT A DIFFERENT PLACE.”

“so do you want to be a model now?”

“NO… I JUST DECIDED THAT SINCE I DO NOT KNOW WHAT I WANT TO DO I WANT TO TRY DIFFERENT THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY. BESIDES, IF I MODEL THEY WILL LET ME PAINT FOR FREE…WHICH I MIGHT ALSO TRY… THINK ABOUT IT…MASTER ARTIST PAPYRUS” Papyrus veered a little as he turned into the parking lot, and used a little orange magic to get the wheels down again…

“well, bro there is no rush to figure it out. just promise that if things get too weird you will stop.”

“NO PROBLEM.” Papyrus parked at the mall.

The two had fun at the mall again, Sans decided to try one or two button down shirts… they looked good on Grillby... maybe they could look good on him. He ended up with one new blue button down... he also bought some new pajama shorts… black with white and orange trim… an orange that Sans was sure would not clash with Grillby… and if Papyrus noticed they weren’t Sans’ size he sure kept quiet about it.

Papyrus was looking for a present for Undyne, since her birthday was coming up. Papyrus had a pretty low bar to jump over compared to last year.

“i still can’t believe you got her a case of bloodworm fish food…”

“THE CLERK TOLD ME IT WAS A TREAT FISH LOVE… AND SHE SPRINKLED ALL OF IT ON HER CEREAL SO I THINK SHE ENJOYED IT. I MIGHT GET HER ANOTHER CASE ”

“still, it was a bit awkward.”

“WHAT ABOUT THIS? SHE ALWAYS COMPLAINS ABOUT HOW DRY IT IS UP HERE” Papyrus pointed to an inflatable kiddie pool.

“pretty sure she’s too pointy for that to work. how about something that doesn’t revolve around the fact that she is a fish monster?”

“HOW ABOUT A COOKING DEVICE?” Papyrus grabbed Sans arm and dragged him into the kitchen supplies store. Papyrus settled on an ice cube tray that made the ice look like dinosaurs and a teakettle shaped like… a fish. Sans pitched in and got a few sort of matching teacups, little blue waves painted on the sides.

Sans passed a waffle maker.

“hey paps, would you be willing to show me how to make those?” If there is one thing Papyrus had learned to make at that old diner it was waffles. The two brothers grabbed bubble teas, goofed off at the arcade, stopped at home depot, and headed home.

 

****************************************************************

Papyrus frowned as Sans burned another waffle. This was pretty impressive since the waffle maker had a little light that lit up when the waffle was ready. Papyrus also taught Sans to make strawberry compote… and with the whipped cream on top, they were pretty nice for a first attempt.

Armed with the basics, Sans continued practicing while Papyrus read one of his more complex puzzle books. It made him really happy to see his brother active again… Those times underground, when Papyrus would have done anything to pull Sans out of Grillby’s…away from the drinks…

Now Papyrus looked forward to the smile on Sans’ face when he came home, glowing. Papyrus hoped he would find someone someday, he had gone on a few more dates with Alphys and Undyne, but Papyrus had bigger fish to fry. Modeling made him feel good, but it was probably more of a hobby. Part of him wanted to see what the world had to offer.

Papyrus looked back at his book… he skimmed over the section on creating hydraulic gates… he had that down… besides the parts on box placement patterns were his favorite.

 

***********************************************************************

Grillby hated box placement patterns…. and his dad would not stop talking about them.

“GrillBErt… the… best one is the lock stat pATtern… some prefer the UPdaTEd lock plus pattern….but thOSe people are wrONg” His dad technically had a mouth, molten rock that was covered in lava, and burbled while he talked.

“…uh…uh.. yeah” Grillby placed another order for hamburger meat and stared decorating the tables.

“…SON aRE you…EVen listening… whAT are you doINg?”

“…sorry dad…it is a little weird to have one in a bar… but there are not many monster run establishments…I am planning for another baby shower….third one this week…”

“…OH…Hoo hoo…did yOU hear?... FUKU got ENGAGed…” Grillby’s flame shot up.

“…Isn’t she … only a year or two out of highschool?”

“..Oh.. you knOW how it is… Now that WE are on the surface… everYOne wants to get hitched, have kids… you know more little MonsteRLINGS… it was the same after the wAR…”

Grillby sighed… he knew what coming next…

“…SpEAKING of which Grillby… I found this lovely vulcan girl… she goes by SpARKle…she can do lava… and EMIt a clOUD Of fireworks… maybe you tWO would like to mEEt”

“… actually… I am… dating someone… already”

“…HoOO…HoOO.. Hoo …wHY haven’t you tOLD me? Do I know HER?” Grillby could hear his dad bubbling excitedly over the phone. Like a pot on low boil…

“…him…”

“Oh HOO!... Well, as long as I have a grandflAME before I die… Well, is he a VulcAN?...wOULD be nice to mEET another volcANIc monster”

“… no dad… he is a-”

“LET me gUEss… you are kindof edgY? Running a bAR … a pyrOPE?”

“…how is running a business edgy…”

“another … elemETAL… like your mOTHER?

“…no… they are not necessarily-”

“uhh a flame sprite…”

“…definitely not.”

“…ok… you know I am not big on IncUBI but if it makes you hAPpy…”

“…They are a skeleton… Sans… he used to sell hotdogs in Hotland… maybe you know him…”

“…Ohh… nOO… do nOT …know them…hOW lovely…uhh…wELL your mothER and I would love to meet hIM. wANT to come up for LUNch? BrING them over tomORRow?” Grillby noticed his dad was burbling a bit more than usual, he did not realize his dad had wanted him to date a firemonster so badly…

“…well do you guys… still live in Hotland core… not sure if Sans can do the lava thing…”

“…oh… right… wELL… we haven’t visited in a whILE…you can pICK us up wth your new cAR.? yOUR mom can bring some food”

“…that would be nice… I will see if that works…”

“…OkAY son… I will expect a cALL later to confirm… see you… lots of lAva”

“…ok… lots of lava”

Grillby moved his head away from the speaker.

“…FiamETTA… you are not GOIng to believe who GrILLbert is dating…”

Grillby hung up.

Huh, he had been expecting less of a lukewarm response…

*****************************************

Grillby sat on his couch and was trying not to get up and help Sans who for some reason was very adamant about making “Breakfast for Dinner” without Grillby.

“just relax grillbabe, papyrus taught me how to make these.”

Honestly, despite Papyrus’ improvements not the most comforting thing… Grillby had to convince Papyrus that no one wanted pineapple sardine pizza… Papyrus getting better at cooking put him the experimental phase. Then again when Grillby was experimenting with cooking… he had made that motor oil and dried blueberry pie… his mother could not finish her slice…

‘ok…tahdah! Dinner a la’ sans.”

“…This is sans-stack-tic….” a stack of nice looking waffles with whipped cream and… woodchips sprinkled on top were piled in front of Grillby. Aww the woodchips were sweet. Grillby leaned over and gave Sans a nuzzle.

“well i wanted to let you relax for once, as best as you could, go on and try one, waffle you waiting for?” Sans nudged the waffles towards Grillby…

Grillby approached the waffles…and cut into them.. they could not scarier than that soup... he noticed one or two on Sans’ plate were burned, whipped cream not quite covering the marks… Grillby did not exactly mind burned food… but Sans clearly wanted to treat him… and had covered his in strawberries…eww…the elemental cut off a little square of his own and dipped it into whipped cream.

The whipped cream sputtered as it entered his mouth… the sugar was delicious. And the waffles were like fluffy clouds. The burned up while he ate them… but well all food did... He got a lot of flavor from the vapors… oh man was that pine wood?

“…these are… great Sans!” Grillby dug in and practically engulfed up his first waffle, steam from the whipped cream escaping from his mouth.

“is the steam ok? do you want me to leave that stuff off next time?”

“no… I hear… it is like when others eat spicy food… it can hurt a little, but in a nice way… besides the pinewood cuts it… it is my favorite… where did you get it?” Grillby took another bite to demonstrate, the hissing was pretty loud.

“uh, hardware store, practically gave it to me for free. humans were a bit confused when i asked them to turn a plank into mostly shavings…but it didn’t take too long… also don’t worry, I got the untreated type.” Grillby smiled and kept munching.

“so, whipped cream is like hot peppers?” Sans started munching on his, too.

“Yeah… I can’t do ice though… that’s basically poison… with stuff like ice cream and watermelon… well… I mean you know… I have to evaporate it first, so it’s basically just sugar or flavoring”

“that’s rough buddy.”

“…well if you can’t eat lava cake… honestly I feel worse for you… err can you eat lava cake?”

“as a skeleton i do not have organs in the normal sense, more magical digestion- so I can ingest many things. so you can’t exactly poison a skeleton- helps with paps’ cooking experiments. no allergies or dislikes, either. that being said -my bones, while pretty heat resistant could probably not handle pure lava without some damage. i could put it in my mouth briefly, but well i’d be tempted to do this trick-”

Sans took off his shirt. Woah… Grillby was very fine with this trick. Sans leaned his head back as he swallowed a waffle-bit and let the piece fall through him.

“…uhhh…” Grillby was not quite as in love with the trick as he thought he would be- the bit of strawberry coated waffle fell onto his otherwise clean floor.

“uh i will pick that up right now.” Sans knew Grillby liked to keep things nice.

“…Skeletons are crazy…”

“says the crazy elemental that basically inhales the food he cooks for a living.”

“…look… I can tell good food… or in my case… exceptional food… apart.”

“so, any other things you like or dislike?”

“…funny enough… I might… be mildly allergic to strawberries actually… it is hard to test for food allergies with elementals…I may simply dislike them… but I get purple flames in patches whenever I eat them… oh!...and if I melt excessive iron or rocks I get magma patches like my dad…”

Sans looked worried, and started to move his strawberry coated waffles away from the elemental.

“… I seem fine… remember I can touch them? When we decorated that cake?...besides speaking of my dad… my parents are coming up tomorrow night… the wanted to meet you… could you come by around five?...”

“absolutely, grillbz… i’d love to meet them.”

“ …Just let me warn you… it is a bit embarrassing… I think my dad might be weird about you being a skeleton… I did not think he would care… but he acted weird on the phone…”

“i was kind of expecting that, a lot of monsters, can be like that… bunnies with bunnies, dogs with dogs, sentient vegetables with sentient vegetables…”

“… I am sorry… it’s dumb and old fashioned…my dad… Afi… he was born before the barrier…near some volcano in Pol-”

“woah! and you are only in your twenties?”

“…don’t give me that…. skeletons can … live a thousand years… I looked it up…”

“Most skeletons average three hundred to five hundred. A thousand can happen though…uh, i don’t know about me, i’ll be lucky to make it to ninety…maybe paps will.”

“…what …do you-”

“so your dad is pretty old fashioned for obvious reasons-what about your mother?” Sans clearly cut Grillby off.

“…oh my mother Fiametta… she is much younger…. she probably won’t care… her brother married this annoying… smoke monster…more like a cloud of poison gas… the worst she will do is badger us to have kids…”

“ugh, her and my co-woker can start a club…”

“… yeah… I don’t see what the problem is… dad waited till he was four hundred before his first one… my half brother Magmus… you should meet him too sometime....err not that I have a problem with kids... just a bit..."

"yeah" it was awkward for Sans, too, “well, however they feel about me, i am looking forward to meeting them.”

"...Once they meet you I know they will like you..."

The couple finished their breakfast dinner. Sans reached to throw his shirt back on… until he saw Grillby pout a little. Well, he contorted his flame smile into what might be a pout, or at least a wavy pucker.

“oh well maybe i’ll leave this off…” Sans couldn’t say no to pouty Grillby.

“that reminds me, i got these for you...you don’t have to wear them, but i bet they will uh look nicer-they won’t clash- i mean nice on you- everything looks nice on you, um i just bought them cause they reminded me of you.” Again-smooth Sans, smooth. The small skeleton pulled out a shopping bag that he had stowed with the waffle ingredient bag and handed Grillby the pajamas from earlier.

Grillby smiled and put them on…

The pair curled up after dinner, Sans enjoying combing his finger bones through Grillby’s flaming hair. Sans thought about shortcutting home…but his bed was broken and Grillby was warm.

*******************************************************************************************

Grllby’s dad took up most of the backseat, his billowing magma was spreading into Sans’ seat slightly. Afi was a large monster, roughly humanoid like Grillby, but more spread out, and honestly intimidating, despite wearing a bowtie. Layers of cooling and super heated magma shifted over his head, bubbles of magma burbled out of his mouth every time he talked- making it pretty hard for Sans to always get the full sentence. Sans understood the next sentence perfectly well though…

“…SoO… you thINK… yOU have …what it tAKes to date my GrillBERT? …

Sans tried his best to look serious and not to burst into tears at the word Grillbert,

“yes of course, i promise to only ever treat your son with respect” Luckily skeletons could get away with always smiling...

“..hOOO hOO hOO… you better…” Afi thumped the back of Sans’ back, while his molten smile melted into itself. Sans was pretty sure that if he ever hurt Grillby Afi would turn him into a pile of char…

“…Dad… please do not scare him off…” Grillby slowed the car almost painfully as they went around a bend.

“Oh, do not worry about him young man...,” Fiametta turned to Sans. The glowing crimson elemental had her flaming hair tied back somehow in a tight bun, and wore a neatly pressed pantsuit. Sans was glad he had tried to dress nicely with his blue button down. Fiametta spoke in a firm, crisp voice, like a refined Undyne. Her crimson flame was more like Grillby’s, although unlike Grillby’s slow burn, Fiametta was crackling quickly. Her mouth was a bit more permanently defined, and it tightened to match her narrowing black eyes as she spoke,

“So Grillby tells me you used to work as a sentry in Snowdin, never went for the Royal guard?...”

“uh, well i um mostly took the job for my brother, he was training to be a guard, i helped him practice. i am a little short though. not super intimidating, more of the science type.”

Fiamentta’s eyes narrowed as Sans spoke. “but uh of course i, uh loved every moment of it, and i mean a human did come in on my watch.” Sans had honestly most enjoyed the long naps sentry duty gave him… but Fiametta did not need to know that.

“Ah the human. I was off that day, such a shame. But really, it is probably a good thing seeing as I might have burned them to a crisp. Good on you for helping defend the kingdom. I always wanted Grillbert to try it out…”

“…Look…Mother… I doubt I would make a good guard… you know I dislike… fi……fighting…”

Fiametta went very quiet as Grillby continued to drive.

**************************************

Dang … his mother might have caught that. He hoped no one had. Grillby took a breath in as the others picked up the conversation again.

Grillby watched the needle of the speedometer carefully, he was going exactly one mile per hour under the speed limit… calm controlled driving… to get everyone to his apartment in one piece. Better listen to everyone again. I mean he had not seen his parents for a while.

“…sO Sans… I used to work on HotlAND puzzles…do you… like pUZzzles…?”

“uh… i love crosswords. my bro is a puzzle champion though. he used to love setting them up for humans, taught me a thing or two. “

“…oOh…hOO…HOO… can we set your brother up with GrillbERT?...”

“…Dad!...”

“…Loosen up GrillbERT… sANs and… I are fine….” Afi continued to talk about puzzles and Sans continued to talk about his brother/ his brother’s puzzles. Both seemed happy.

Maybe he should loosen up just a little? He wondered if he got his control issues from his mom or dad. It was true that his mother worked with military grade precision… but when it came to her magic she would always just cut loose. His father… again precise when it came to puzzles, but overall a big loveable goofball… Nope Grillby was an anomaly.

When fire is free it chases through the world… burning…rampaging… it had a free wild nature…but he was kind of the opposite. Was that all he could see of himself? He was a fire monster that did not truly like fire…

Grillby decided to stop thinking about himself and instead worry about Sans and his parents getting along. The car-ride seemed like it was fine, and everyone except himself was chatting.

Grillby pulled into his parking spot. Sans short-cutted out of his seat to help Grillby’s mother out of the car. Grillby smiled. This seemed to be growing great.

“Oh what a lovely trick. Is that a skeleton thing…?” Fiametta smiled at Sans.

“…uh, well, not something most skeletons can do.”

“You know, now that you mention it, I have met a few different skeletons… they seem to dislike magic…”

“well. yeah, uh some do.”

“But, your family must be proud since you know such a useful trick…”

“oh, yeah paps is total proud.” Sans clammed up and while Fiametta might not have been able to tell, Grillby could tell Sans smile was actually a frown… uh oh distressed Sans.

Grillby gave Sans hand a quick squeeze.

“Your magic… is really great Sans…” Grillby smiled at the small skeleton who smiled faintly again. If Grillby was not happy with his magic, Sans at least should be.

“heh. it’s nothing,” Sans winked at Grillby.

 

As Fiametta and Afi looked at the restaurant the elemental hoped the rest of the day would be ok.


	11. In which Sans gets in a fight...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Afi decides that Sans needs to prove himself with a traditional fire fight... how can this possibly go well?

 

Afi and Fiametta were sitting at Grillby’s dining room table. Fiametta and Afi had brought lunch… cedar logs cut into little squares with some sort honey drizzle. Sans could not be entirely sure. I mean technically Sans could put one in his mouth… but he was pretty sure it would just get stuck inside his magic ribcage for ten years. Aside from the cedar squares, there was curry rice, which Sans enjoyed immensely, and some yellow liquid? Sans decided there was no harm in trying it… it was some sort of oil… not as great as ketchup but hey.

 

Grillby poked at the oil, looking like he wanted to grab some liquor instead…

 

“Grillbert, stop being such a baby… this is very healthy for you, less sugar than alcohol.” Fiametta poked Grillby in the stomach before turning to Sans,

 

“Grillbert has always been such a picky eater… I swear I used to have such a hard time getting him to try anything new, and not coated in sugar…” Fiametta smiled at Grillby who defiantly poked his cedar squares, before looking up again. “I finally got my fickle little flame-ling to try pinecones but still barely eats his woods.”

 

Sans smiled. Imagining a young Grillby being a picky eater was adorable. Was Grilbly still picky? He loved to cook, but it was true he mostly stuck to fast food and baking. Grillby started to turn a bit blue at the tip of his flame…

 

“Ah…hoo...hOO… Grillbert …you nEEd to …watch your figure, ONCe you lOOSe it… it never cOMEs back…” Afi patted his stomach area, which was a bit on the pudgy side, amplified by the fact that he was oozing with Lava.

 

Grillby drank the oil, and begrudgingly smiled, “…Ok… this is pretty nice…what is it exactly”

 

“Sunflower…”

 

“…oh… the fabled sunflower…they are so pretty though…” Grillby still had the silk one. He tried not to think about grinding one into oil… it was pretty tasty though…

 

“Ah yes, now that we are on the surface there are so many nicely flavored drinks. I mean, we always had oil, not entirely sure what flower or plant it was made from Underground… but the variety here is great… olive…canola…hot pepper infused…motor” Fiametta’s flame flickered very quickly. Sans decided not to mention that one of those was very different from the rest.

 

“…. I am so happy my fAMily can finally taste all the different types of trEEs up hERE… yOU haven’t lived till yOU try mANgo wood… GrillbERT you need more fiber in your diet, less of this squishy food…” Afi poked at the curry.

 

“…I am fine dad…”

 

“…LOOk fiber… is impORtant for…”

 

“…oh my Asgore dad…”

 

Sans watched Grillby as he took the plate of wood and overturned it into his head, and just let it burn up at once. Sans might have worried this was rude, but Afi and Fiametta seemed happy. Sans couldn’t complain, and well the room smelled great… Sans decided he should try giving Grillby more aromatic food…

 

Sans was on his best behavior, he hadn’t cracked a fire pun all day, had dressed nicely, and was resisting washing down his food with ketchup… Grillby’s parents would like him… The group happily talked for a bit about adjusting to the surface. Sans silenced his buzzing phone.

 

***************************************************************************************************************

 

**Knock Knock**

 

Huh no one usually came by the apartment. Grillby got up to answer the door. Papyrus was standing there, in black jeans and his waiter t-shirt, with a labcoat in one hand.

 

“OH HELLO, BOSS. I JUST WANTED TO DROP THIS OFF FOR SANS BEFORE I HEAD OUT.”

 

“…oh… Thank you Papyrus…is everything going ok down there?”

 

“YES, THE HUMAN DOM IS DOING WELL AT THE BAR AND THE CUSTOMERS ARE EXCITED ABOUT SOME WEIRD SPORT. I WAS JUST COVERING FOR BOBBY.”

 

A loud cheer echoed up from the bar below…

 

“…that is great… thank you… I appreciate your hard work… It is nice to spend a day with my parents…”

 

“NICE TO MEET YOU, GRILLBY’S PARENTS.” Papyrus waved.

 

“Oh, Sans, is that your older brother…? That was interested in the royal guard?”

 

“younger brother, yup.” Sans smiled.  

 

“OH, I WISH THE ROYAL GUARD WAS STILL AROUND. UNDYNE WAS TRAINING ME BEFORE WE LEFT THE UNDERGROUND. I WAS HOPING SHE WOULD LET ME IN”

 

“You were trained by the Captain?...Impressive! You look like you train hard…I am sure you would have been an excellent guard… what did you like most about it?”

 

Fiametta was looking at Papyrus, who even in the waiter uniform cut an imposing figure… standing a head and a half taller than Grillby. Sans was a tad jealous… he wished his brother was a little bit shorter… or something… usually Papyrus’ voice turned people off, but considering that Grillby’s dad burbled everything, he would not be so lucky.

 

“OH I LOVED DESIGNING THE PUZZLES TO CAPTURE HUMANS. LUCKILY THE HUMAN THAT SAVED US WAS VERY CUNNING…”

 

“…ohh.. hOO…Hooo… Don’t worry he got thrOUGh a few of mine in HotlAND, too…”

 

“OH WOWIE YOU DESIGN PUZZLES…”

 

“…yES… your bROTHER told me you like them… hohoho…. I like yOU…HoO…HOO” Sans was definitely feeling a bit jealous, his eye went out.

 

“NYEHEHEH… WELL I HAD BETTER GO LEAVE… DO NOT WANT TO BE LATE FOR MY MODELLING JOB…”

 

“Oh, cAN’T you teleport to wORK? yOU should stay a bIT…” Afi looked hopeful.

 

“NOPE...THAT IS SANS’ SPECIAL TALENT” Papyrus backed out the door, looked apologetically at Sans and waved goodbye as he walked out.

 

“…OH… and he… is a model… GrillBERT.”

 

“Afi… we just met him...let’s wait a week…” Fiametta suddenly switched dark red to purple…

 

“…Dad…”

 

“…If… he hAS to date a skelETon… might as be one that LIKes pUZzles…” Afi seemed to be egging Sans on, it was weird, but the lava monster burbled in an almost teasing voice. Fiametta looked at Sans and Afi, Sans couldn’t tell but it looked like she was biting her lower lip.

 

“…Should dATE someone…who could prOTect GrillbERT in a fight…” Grillby’s flame went low and blue… he looked at Sans, and gestured for him to speak…

 

“…a skeleton… with a spINE.” Afi, puffed up, letting his head bubble like a kettle… Grillby was gesturing at Sans frantically. Fiametta winked at Sans and put a fist in the air.

 

“i don’t know why you are giving me the _third degree_ , but i could protect grillbz in a fight…” Sans glowed one of his eyes and rattled his bones.

 

“…Ohhh…hOO… is that some sort of skeleton intimidation…I like the eye… hOO HOO HOO….you have some fire in you after all…well then… maybe you would enjoy the traditional fire dATING customs…” Afi sat down and smiled at Sans

 

“oh, Honey that would be so sweet.” Fiametta suddenly smiled,  “and it would be more exciting than lunch.” Fiametta pumped her fist in the air like Undyne.

 

“Sans, did Grillby tell you about traditional fire monster dating…?” Fiametta asked flame flickering wildly.

 

“…no…absolutely not… besides we just started dating… I think that can wait a bit…” Grillby spoke in a tone that sounded like traditional fire monster dating was a chore.

 

“…actUALLY I think… it would… bE fun….” Afi chimed in.

 

“Besides…It is an honor, it means we see your relationship as lasting… normally I would wait a a bit longer, but well Grillby you are an adult now, so well, any relationship you have could be lasting…” Fiametta pinched Grillby in the cheeks in a way that did not support her claim that Grillby was an adult.

 

“Besides Sans- if you can survive the trial of fire… it means your love can last… and that you can protect our little flame from harm…” Fiametta turned and smiled at Grillby, who face-palmed his fiery palm so hard it was practically merged with his face.

 

“uh, survive?” Sans questioned to the room.

 

“…guys I do not need to be protected from anything…unless I move to a lake town… don’t you two remember what happened to my Prom date…”. Ugh Grillby remembered prom night… poor Fire-Bat…

 

“Grillby, she was fine... and we let her date you even after she failed… she survived” Fiametta dismissively waved her hand.

 

“uh, survived?” Sans questioned the room again to no avail.

 

“…Yes… but she survived because she was made of fire…” Grillby looked worried.

 

“He will be fine honey…” Fiametta assured Grillby and winked at Sans.

 

“…wELL…let’s…check then…” Afi’s eye glowed red…Oh crap… was his dad trying to check…

 

“…oOH maybe grilLBERT is right…SAns…I was… sURPrised… the last cOUPle of monsters Grillby dated were more…intimidating… I mean… even if they wERe small they could take a hIT… I do lIKe you… but just look at your HP… I can’t quITE read it…we are not in battle… but its low huh?... yOU know he is mADE of fIRE right… can you even take bURN damage?”

 

“…father… you know it is rude to check HP …”

 

“look, you guys just cause my HP is low doesn’t mean i can’t handle attacks.” Sans did not appreciate his HP being looked at will nilly… that was a bit private.

 

“…ok…ok… Sans you wANT to try? eVEN though I might hURT you...?”

 

Sans did not hesitate,

 

“for grillbz, of course.”

 

Grillby’s eyes widened with Fiametta’s. Grillby looked at Sans. Both elementals were clearly worried.

 

“grillbz… i know paps told you what i can do… and look, i may have never been a royal guard… but well, i was judge to king asgore… i will have you know he does not pick just anyone…”

 

Fiametta’s eyes went wider. Afi raised an eyebrow.

 

“…Hoo hoOO… ver well, if you wish…”

 

Grillby still looked panicked.

 

“let me talk to grillby for a second.” Grillby took the opportunity to grab Sans hand and pull him into the bedroom.

 

Sans leaned in to Grillby, putting a hand on the elemental’s shoulder. Grillby looked upset, so Sans tried to lighten the mood.

 

“grillby, buddy, pal, love of my life, sun in my sky, uhm do your parents always try to barbecue your dates? or just the handsome ones?”

 

Grillby rambled…

“…well… yes… but not until the third or fourth date usually… I figured I could just let you meet them today… I am so sorry… this is really embarrassing… my dad was being so rude… look he doesn’t mean it he just wanted to egg you into agreeing…its really dumb… my dad looked worried, is your HP really low…?”

 

“well, i don’t mind, if it is customary, i want to fit in, and grillbz, my hp is fine”

 

“… but…”

 

“relax, grillbz. so what if it low? Besides, your parents- are they going to respect me if i don’t fight?”

 

“…well…no… but you do not have to…”

 

“more importantly, will you lose respect for me if i fight?”

 

“…No… of course not…I really do not like fighting, but I don’t think we can get out of this…it could be nice to battle with you…” Grilby thought that is Sans’ attacks were anything like Papyrus’ his parents would be impressed quickly enough…

 

“no, its ok.. just promise me that you will tell me about any other fire monster dating customs… and that you are ok with me fighting…”

 

“…promise…and I guess it is fine…”

 

“oh, right, and do your parents have a type of attack that I have to let hit me to end the fight? cause that would be the only problem”

 

“…uh no… no vegetables or healing water… just normal damaging fire… waves of lava…expanding in size…fiery rocks… fireballs shaped like their interests… you get the idea…similar to some of my attacks… not that you would know… anyway if we are going to do this let me tell you a bit…” Grillby pushed up his glasses and took a deep breath.

 

“…I get a bit scary when I fight…”

 

“i doubt you’ll scare me, and well, if you do we can match.” Sans smiled, and patted Grillby’s arm. He was sure Grillby would be perfectly non-threatening. Grillby smiled and carried on.

 

“…The way it works is that we fight together… although they will probably concentrate on you…”

 

“heh, well if its with you it could be fun. do we fight back?”

 

“…Yes.. do not worry my mother is a sentry and my father… is skilled… they can take a hit… what is your attack?”

 

“one”

 

“…What…? Your brother’s was twenty?...”

 

“look it is fine. it is mutli-hit. are your parents good at dodging?”

 

“…My mother will try… but my father… no… he usually tanks hits… he isn’t exactly agile…”

 

“what can you do?”

 

“…Uh… I can do fireballs like mom, the lava expanding trick like dad… I might grow a bit…”

 

“woah grillbz”

 

“…Oh not like that….” Grillby flicked Sans on the nose,

 

“…I also have a special fire attack… let me surprise you…and I can do a wall of fire... where you have to move… to avoid damage” Grillby shook his head, “…pretty standard fire elemental stuff…you… you have the platform bones… the blue attack…and the skull laser thing?”

 

“i also have a special attack where i can pause the fight indefinitely and take a nap, but i probably won’t use that.”

 

“…wow… that is… so lazy…” Grillby smiled.

 

“ok, last thing, promise you won’t call off the fight when you hear my stats.”

 

“…what are they?...”

 

“just promise.”

 

“…”

 

“grillby…”

 

“…ok… I promise.”

 

“ok… so my attack is one…. my defense is one… and my HP… is one.” Sans watched as Grillby’s jaw dropped.

 

“…Bu…but… my dad’s attack is good… and mom can do a ton…”

 

“no buts, grillbz, you promised, just trust me, i can dodge like mad.” SANS TRIED TO SHOW Grillby he could dodge by bobbing around him. Grillby still looked upset.

 

“look, grillbz, i want to do this for you, ok”

 

Grillby looked Sans carefully in the eye. Sans looked at him, stalwart.

 

“c’mon, let’s get your parent’s off your case, and show em’ we are the best couple.”

 

Grillby leaned his head back and groaned.

 

“…Ok… Sans…we are definitely the best couple… if you are sure you are ok, I trust you…let’s get this dumb custom over with…” The two walked to the fire monsters waiting at the dining room table, who seemed to be whispering strategy to each other. Afi’s eyes locked with Grillby’s.

 

Grillby’s flame would not stop flickering blue as he spoke,

 

“…Ok…we accept your challenge…”

 

“….hOO…HOOO… I won’t go down without a fight…son…”

 

 

*************************

 

Sans short-cutted everyone to the back of his house, Grillby did not want the restaurant patrons to hear a commotion above them…

 

“…I… hAVE to admit… that is hANDY… but we stILL neEd to test you… last chAnce to bACK out…?”

 

“nope, anything for grillbz”

 

“…alRIGHt FiamETta, GrillbERT, stand ready…”

 

Fiametta nodded… as did Grillby. Afi took his shirt off… he kindof looked like a sumo wrestler… until lava billowed out, and engulfed his lower torso… more like a giant melted gumdrop…

 

“…ugh you are doing the lava attack… I should, too” Grillby sighed and took his shirt off too. Sans might have enjoyed it, except that Grillby’s flames roared and immediately merged together… Sans could just see the elemental’s arms if he squinted. Fiametta had changed into her sentry armor (it had been a quick trip to Hotland). Dang, they were doing this right. Everyone turned to look at Sans.

 

“…We are doing a formal fight Sans…” Grillby whispered.

 

“oh asgore, with the dialogue and everything…I haven’t updated mine in a while.”

 

“…eh me neither… don’t worry…”

 

Sans sighed, and ignited his eye… and curled his smile into his trademark maddening skeletal grin. He let the other eye burn out, turning to Grillby, hoping he wouldn’t be freaked out. It was hard to tell but Grillby seemed to be blushing for some reason.

 

“…ok here goes nothing .” Sans whispered and squeezed what he thought was Grillby’s hand.

Sans and Grillby stepped forward, Fiametta and Afi mirrored… with that the FIGHT dialogue GUI appeared. Everyone got their intro dialogue…unsurprisingly Sans was first, he was always fast… he would abridge his intro dialogue for these guys…

 

“…it’s a beautiful day outside…birds are singing… flowers are blooming…on days like these… prepare for judgement… as monsters like you…should be burning in hell…heh heh heh. do you wanna have a bad time? cause if you take another step forward…you are REALLY not going to like what happens next.”

 

Sans let his eye shine, and shook his bones. Telling a couple of fire monsters to burn in hell felt a little ineffective, but they looked pleasantly surprised. Well Sans had judge dialogue… Grillby looked impressed. Afi smiled.

 

Next was Fiametta…

 

“You think you can get past me, Fiametta the Great- Chief Sentry of Hotland, reporting to to Undyne, Captain of the Royal Guard? Fear me, as my flames consume you…!” Fiametta let her head turn a deep purple, and the flame rose a good ten feet upwards… nice… although her dialogue was somewhat standard dialogue for a sentry…

 

Grillby was up. He grinned sheepishly

 

“… Welcome to Grillby’s…*the bar is on fire* I would serve you… but…” The ground beneath the elemental burst into flames and Grillby’s merged flames grew as he laughed, straightened his bowtie, and turned his grin into a wicked smile. Grillby didn’t have much dialogue, but it was impressive nevertheless.

 

Sans thought it was super hot…

 

Unsurprisingly Afi went last, he puffed up and gave a nasty stare.

 

“*Afi, the lava beast stares at you* Prepare to be consumed by Hell-itself” short and to the point huh- Afi , doubled in size, lava erupted from his head, bursting out of bubbles.

 

This would be a good fight. Now for the part Sans hated. As was customary in a traditional monster fight they would show their stats before battle. Grillby and Sans would check each other’s and Fiametta and Afi would follow suit. Grillby read Sans timidly.

 

_Sans. HP 1 Attack 1 Defense 1. The easiest Enemy. Can only deal one damage._

 

The fire monsters looked at each other, Afi looked like he was trying not to laugh.

 

“…sON… I hear there are some whIMSums… you cOULd also date…”

 

Sans shrugged it off,

 

“no bones about it, my stats are low, but trust me, you guys don’t have a femur to stand on…”

 

Fiametta shook her head, also trying not to laugh, and did a pose as Afi read her stats.

 

_Fiametta. HP 500 Attack 40 Defense 20. The loyal sentry. Watch her flames surround you!_

“…that’s… my little fIREflower...” Afi looked proud.

 

Similar to Paps, but lower health and higher attack… The attack would be brutal. Sans read Grillby’s.

_Grillby HP 1100 Attack 42 Defense 18. The Hot bartender. His flames surround you!_

Sans thought it was adorable how Grillby didn’t have numbers that fell into tens… they said that was lucky for a monster.

 

Fiametta gave Grillby a look. “Grillbert! the Hot bartender… what kind of reputation will that give you?”

 

Afi gave him a thumbs up. Fiametta sighed and read Afi’s.

 

_Afi HP 1600 Attack 10 Defense 40. The fearsome lava beast. HOO HO. He will engulf you._

Fiametta did her best with the “Hoo Ho. ”Afi smiled and let out a laugh. Oof that Defense and HP… Afi was definitely a tank.

 

Fiametta lowered Afi’s stat table… the signal to start the match. And it begun. Sans had to go first… he always lead with the same attack…

 

 _You feel like you are going to have a bad time._ His blue attack hit Afi and Fiametta, their white souls (and oddly flames) turned blue… they hadn’t been expecting that quick of an attack. Fiametta tried to jump, but was held in place. Afi just stood there, uncaring that his lava had turned blue with his soul. Two giant dragon skulls phased into existence. They shrieked, and let out a blast of laser from gaping maws, dripping with ectoplasm… Sans summoned the bone array… a complex net pattern… all at once… Afi tanked it… it looked like he felt it though. Fiametta acrobatically ducked and weaved in place to dodge most of the bone attacks, but the laser hit her… (1 damage..1 damage …1 damage…1…) It was true that Sans only did one damage… but the combo multi-hit numbers were staggering…

 

The pair smiled,

 

“Not bad sentry…”

 

“…Hoo HOO… pretty good for oNE attack…"

 

Fiametta’s turn.

 

 _You feel the righteous flames._ Fiametta shot an arc of fireballs at Sans, and a few at Grillby, in addition, flames burst form the ground in a Figure eight pattern. Sans dodged them all perfectly, with a swish. Grillby, who honestly was a bit slow, got hit by a flame on his pant cuff… he stomped it out, but took a few damage. Fiametta stuck a fiery tongue out at her son.

 

Grillby sighed. He liked those pants… the elemental looked at Sans, might as well show him his coolest attack…

 

 _Grillby wants to pour you a drink._ Grillby’s flames grew to the size of a small house. Large flames summoned an ethereal cocktail glass filled with boiling magma. Grillby poured it over and the entire area was filled… Sans had to dodge, too. Fiametta dodged, and Afi tanked, taking a heavy hit. Grillby laughed as the drink poured.

 

“…WEll… son… looks like yOU mODified my trick.”

 

 _Swallowed by fire._ Hoo Hoo hoo…Afi enlarged himself, and melted into the ground towards Sans slowly. Sans easily dodged to avoid the lava expansion… Grillby moved in with into a puzzle shaped clear patch of grass.

 

Round two.

 

 _You feel your sins crawling on your back._ A set of more complex bone platforms that had to be jumped with Gravity souls and three laser blasts that rotated. Again, Afi tanked… only jumping the lowest of the platforms... Fiametta dodged all but the third blast.

 

 _The righteous flames surround you._ Concentric circles, walls of flame surrounded Sans and Grillby, Sans moved as each circle hit him. The pair both dodged the fireballs in the figure eight pattern.

 

 _Want another?_ Grillby slung a few fireballs at his parents in a star pattern, where each fireball flung in at different speeds. It was pretty cool. Grillby’s parents seemed used to it though, even Afi managed to dodge these.

 

 _The lava pools at your feet._ Afi smiled, he puffed out his cheeks as he drew in some air, and blew out magma with large molten rocks shaped like Tetris pieces. One rock left a small crater where Sans had been standing… Grillby’s glasses came off as he ran from his father’s molten boulder- they would definitely shatter if the boulder hit them. Sans grabbed Grillby’s glasses with his magic, and placed them back on the elementals face. Sans could keep this up, but Grillby was staring to pant… the guy wasn’t exactly a fighter.

 

Afi started to slump, too, he was a puzzle designer. Sans did another volley of bone and laser attacks, concentrating on Afi…Sans wanted to finish this if Grillby was getting tired. Fiametta got caught by one laser blast… Afi, three.

 

Fiametta looked at Afi, she could tell her husband was tired from tanking. Sans hoped they were conceding. Fiametta nodded at Afi. The lava monster laughed, and Fiametta jumped nimbly into his arms. And then, Fiametta turned into nothing but flames…

 

Sans gasped… was she ok? He looked at Grillby,

 

“…don’t worry Sans… The two have merged… an old elememental trick…” Sans looked again… there were two souls… Afi had grown in size again, but his lava was burning with red hot fire… he thought he saw Fiametta’s smile flicker through the flames… He did a quick name check.

 

 _Fearsome fire mass. Afi and Fiametta. Prepare to be engulfed by molten fire._ A wall of fire and lava surrounded the two, and a tidal wave surrounded them and crashed. Sans pulled out a blaster to ride and dodge this one, pulling Grillby onto it with him… wooh that was close… Sans was not used to helping a second monster dodge… this was getting tricky. Sans and Grillby probably couldn’t exactly merge yet. But Sans had an idea…

 

“ok grillbz, we are going to combine, too.”

 

“…Uh not sure that we can…Sans… but we can try…”

 

Sans winked saucily… and used his magic to hold Grillby on his shoulders…. piggyback style, Grillby’s arms covering Sans shoulders in fire.... tired Grillby gratefully resting on the skeleton… not a real merge, and not necessarily intimidating…but why not. The problem was that the taller Grillby was being magically balanced on Sans, this would be unstable after a bit. Grillby could copy his mom though…

 

“…well here goes nothing…”

 

The elemental smiled a wicked grin to match Sans, before his face was lost in flame. Grillby engulfed Sans in magical fire… and managed to partially merge into Sans… legs melted into Sans’ torso, arm flames sunk into Sans shoulders, Grillby’s torso and head phased into Sans head partially… but not fully. Sans seemed to be taking the heat ok…the blue fire in his own grew intense and mixed with Grillby’s fire.

 

Hey, the pair probably could actually merge. Honestly, Grillby did not want to get their souls too close yet, it would be a bit forward… so this was as far as he would push it. Grillby shot his flames out, acting like fire armor over the skeleton…

 

Holy hell, Sans felt the fire surrounding him…it was burning… but oddly it didn’t hurt much more than the time Grillby had slept on top of him... Sans smiled and put some energy into the merge, too. He glowed his eye blue… and Grillby’s eye glowed to match.

 

 _You feel the flames of hell licking down your back. Prepare for a bad time._ Sans shot out a circle of Eight Canons surrounding Fi-Afi. They shot out a mix of fireballs and lasers…

 

“…awesome…” Grillby laughed a bit… Sans joined in “heh heh heh… HA ha ha.”

Grillby had a deep laugh, more elegant than his father’s but deep.

 

The pair hopped on a fiery blaster to dodge another wave of lava…

 

“grillby do your area fill attack…”

 

Grillby, pushed his remaining body forward, moving Sans with him… Grillby’s eye glowed blue and burning lava engulfed the ground, with bones popping out in a maze pattern… together, the damage was unavoidable… Fi-Afi’s combined health went to half… and the two separated. Everyone was panting, except Sans.

 

“…Hoo HoO… Ok … yOU two win… sANs… I thINK you wILL do fINE for GrillbERT”

 

“I concede… what talent! You two were so cute together!”

 

Grillby slid off of Sans and gave him a hi-five before doing his best to straighten up.

 

“…Hoo hOO… Sans I am sorry for dOUBting you… and for bEING rude about you being a skELEton…”

 

“I am sorry too…Sans… you really took care of Grillby in that fight, not just yourself… Grillby, you should of told us Sans is Boss Monster material…”

 

It was lucky that Sans’ neighbors were monsters, too, as the back yard was smoldering a bit, and bits of bones popped out of the grass… so Sans invited everyone in to the living room for some ketchup, which Fiametta loved. They joked and talked like at lunch, and Sans loosened up, and told some puns, which Afi loved. It seems like Grillby’s parents liked Sans for who he was…

 

Grillby’s parents stayed another twenty minutes, so Grillby had to leave to drive them back to the base of Ebott… the elemental gave Sans a quick hug before driving off, promising to call later. Sans got his lab coat on for a quick stop at the lab… soul still pounding with excitement...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be a little more romantic... but I had a lot of fun writing this one. Papyrus is ging to have a fit when he sees the backyard.


	12. In which Sans learns its not called 'Bone Magic'

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Papyrus and Sans think about what it means to be a skeleton... Grillby tries to help Sans. The two have a healthy adult talk about what they are comfortable with, and the pair visit the doctor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some fun ideas on how monsters deal with different monster relationships
> 
> I talk a bit about healthy consent in this chapter, I hope no one minds. I think it is important to talk about boundaries in a relationship, and that it is pretty romantic to do so. So, yeah... be warned the middle of the chapter talks about that. I changed the rating to mature, nothing particularly mature happens, but they start to discuss monster conception I guess? Grillby and Sans are going to take their time.

*************************************************************************************  
“WHAT HAPPENED TO MY RHODODENDRONS?” It was one in the morning when Sans short cutted back from work… hoping to grab some ketchup out of the fridge before stumbling up to bed. But apparently Papyrus had been waiting for him, and tried to drag him by the arm to the backyard, the arm popped out… Sans could live without it… but he followed anyway. 

Papyrus used Sans arm to point to the back corner of the yard. Sans had noticed the char marks and bone fragments earlier, most of which had magically faded… but had not noticed that one of the rhododendrons had a mostly non dissolved magma boulder on it still…little pink petals flattened in a gardener’s nightmare… oops.

“sorry bro, we kind of used the backyard for a fight, and grillby’s dad kind of uses large scale attacks…”

“WHY WERE YOU FIGHTING WITH GRILLBY’S PARENTS?”

“it is um a fire monster cultural thing...” Sans used his magic to lift up the remaining boulder piece and rest it on some grass… The rhododendron bush was burnt, charred and flattened… a flower crime scene.

“WOWIE, HOW COOL A FIRE MONSTER CULTURE THING…LET ME GUESS IT INVOLVED FIRE…IN OUR BACKYARD…MAYBE NEXT TIME YOU CAN CULTURE SOMEWHERE AWAY FROM THE RHODODENDRONS…” Papyrus waved Sans arm around while gesturing melodramatically.

“i’ll make it up to you… and if it hasn’t all faded by the morning i’ll clean it up, ok bro…?”

“NYEH …” Papyrus watched as Sans attempted to magic the bush upwards again… it struggled upright before falling in half onto Sans foot… nyeh heh heh… how could Papyrus be mad… he handed Sans’ arm back. 

“I GUESS IT IS OK…JUST GET ME A NEW ONE? SO WHAT WAS THIS FIGHT?” Papyrus helped Sans brush the ash off himself.

They went inside and Sans proceeded to tell Papyrus about the Trial by Fire.

“ACTUALLY I WONDER IF SKELETONS HAVE ANY DATING TRADITIONS?”

“no idea bro…not that I really care about being a skeleton anyway…” Sans flicked the sofa.

“DO NOT BE THAT WAY… IT IS OUR HERITAGE…LOOK… I BET THERE ARE SOME COOL ONES…” Papyrus looked excited.

“yeah like shunning magic.”

“SANS…JUST CAUSE OUR PARENTS WERE JERKS…”

“ok bro, if you find a skeleton tradition for dating that doesn’t involve shunning magic or something awful, i promise you can subject me and grillbz to it.” 

“LOOK SANS… I REALLY DO NOT LIKE OUR PARENTS EITHER BUT MAYBE IT WOULD BE HELPFUL IF WE KNEW A LITTLE BIT MORE ABOUT OUR OWN TRADITIONS OR ABOUT BEING A SKELETON MONSTER AT ALL. WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT BEING A SKELETON ANYWAY?

“well…we are made of magic bones… and we can use um… bone magic…

“IS IT JUST CALLED BONE MAGIC?”

“uh gaster called it uhm- nemonic? neurotic? i honestl do not remember.. apparently ghasts use our type too… but well there is probably a real word for it… i’ll remember later.” Sans would probably forget later.

“OK… SO WE USE ‘BONE MAGIC’… ANY OTHER USEFUL INFORMATION BRO?”

“uhm we can’t be poisoned… and we resist heat and cold… and electric shock… we don’t need to breathe or sleep… often” Sans had figured most of those out working in a lab, why had the Xenopus lab brought cysteine into the kitchen was beyond him…

Papyrus was tapping his foot on the ground… “uhm…we can live a long time… alphys told me… and um… skeletons are traditional” Sans was running out of things he knew about skeletons.

“SO WHAT ARE THESE TRADITIONAL TRADITIONS?”

“uhm… probably something bone related. uhm like…i don’t know femur tossing or bone jousting or something.” Those could totally be traditions.

“FEMUR TOSSING?”

“look i admit i have no idea.”

“DON’T YOU WONDER A LITTLE BIT? I JUST WANT TO KNOW A BIT MORE ABOUT MYSELF BROTHER?”

Sans had not really thought about it before. He was starting to get curious though.

“NYEH…LOOK, I AM JUST FEELING A BIT LOS… ER, NYEH… YOU KNOW MAYBE IF I KNOW MORE ABOUT SKELETONS THERE MIGHT BE A FUN NEW CAREER I HAVE NOT EVEN THOUGH OF. MAYBE SKELETONS ARE KNOWN FOR BEING SINGERS…OR PIRATES…. I KEEP SEEING SKELETON FLAGS IN THESE OLD PIRATE MOVIES…”

Right, Paps was still going through the whole “what is my purpose thing.” Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad to find out more about skeletons…

“ok bro, if you find out anything about skeletons let me know, it could be alright i guess-“

An orange spark lit up in Papyrus’ eyes… 

“NYEH HEH HEY! WELL, I THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL FIND A WAY TO LEARN ALL ABOUT SKELETONS AND THEIR CULTURE FOR YOU LAZY BONES. TO THE INTERNET” Papyrus sprang off the couch and up the stairs. Well, if it made Paps happy, why not?

 

*************************************************************************************

Sans went to the home and garden store the next morning. Despite Sans coming back with a hydrangea bush instead of a rhododendron Papyrus was in a better mood. Catsup rolled around in the garden, doing his best to flatten the spearmint plant while Sans planted the new bush. 

“sorry it’s the wrong one, they were out of rhododendrons, but well, the human at the store told me it should turn different colors depending on the soil acidity, so it’s like a little science experiment. i figured it would be fun” Catsup decided to roll onto Papyrus’s boot next.

“WOWIE, THAT IS PRETTY COOL SANS.” Papyrus helped Sans put dirt around the bush and water it.

“SANS…WHILE YOU WENT TO THE GARDEN STORE, I WENT TO THE LIBRARBY”

“library”

“NO, NO THE ONE FROM SNOWDIN MOVED UP HERE.”

“ok… fine…”

“AND THERE WERE ABSOLUTELY NO BOOKS ON SKELETONS. I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT!”

“woah. no bones about it, that’s pretty sad for a librarby.”

“SO I WENT TO THE HUMAN LIBRARY, AND I FOUND A FEW BOOKS… BUT SADLY THEY ARE ON HUMAN SKELETONS… I KNEW HUMANS… AND MANY ANIMALS HAVE SKELETONS INSIDE OF THEM. SKELETONS…SURROUNDED BY MEAT… HONESTLY A BIT CREEPY. ALSO… I COULD HAVE LIVED WITHOUT THE BOOK ON FRACTURES…”

“ooh, sorry bro, those get me, too.”

“SO I TEXTED TORIEL AND ALPHYS. ONE OF THEM MIGHT KNOW SOMETHING. I AM INVITING THEM OVER FOR DINNER ON FRIDAY NIGHT. WITH FRISK AND UNDYNE. YOU SHOULD BRING GRILLBY, THEY HAVEN’T MET YET, RIGHT?”

“sounds cool bro. i’ll ask him. he wanted to talk to me about something anyway.” Sans noticed a buttercup on the ground.

“HAVE FUN. AND IF I FIND ANYTHING NEW IN THE MEANTIME I WILL LET YOU KNOW”

Sans popped over to Grillby’s kitchen, flower in hand.  
**************************************

Grillby was pretty busy, and it was already the morning. He had added pancakes, French toast, and waffles to the menu, and it was an apparent hit, the place was turning into more of a diner…well that wasn’t so bad, but it meant more crowds in the morning than he would like... and he was still the only monster on for mornings.

Grillby felt his cellphone buzz… oh great Sans would be stopping by… he needed to ask the skeleton something personal anyway… sure thing. The elemental started another round of pancakes, added the whipped cream carefully, and placed the strawberr-

“GAH”

Sans was behind him. He dropped the strawberry onto his arm, which immediately flamed it up… and was now purple…

“oh… geez sorry Grillbz....” 

“…Hey Sans…do not…worry about it… um I want to ask you… I know it is personal but-…GAH…” Grillby grabbed his arm and started itching it as it flamed up.

“here, let me bring those out before the get cold, buddy”

Sans brought out the plates, he had to use magic to balance things, but the human customers seemed more impressed than scared. 

When Sans went back to the kitchen, Grillby was on the floor trying to rub charcoal into his now flaring purple arm.

“grillby, i know you weren’t sure, but i think that counts as an allergy… you might want to take that off the menu.”

“…But…people seem to love it… also like… half the rabbits that come here order it exclusively now…”

“ok , well let me at least take over serving for a bit.” Grillby stood up, and his arm flared. That would not help him keep customers…

He begrudgingly went to stand at the chef station after tossing Sans a waiter shirt.

“…thanks… sans… sorry for taking up your morning…”

“hey, anything for you babe…”

Sans swung through the kitchen door, and shortcutted back with about ten orders… flaming purple arm or no flaming purple arm Grillby would be grateful for the help this morning… Grillby thought about Sans… the way he was gliding about with the plates… he was so cute… Grillby felt the flames in his heart crackle a bit… he sighed and washed some dishes…

********************************

At noon Cindy and Papyrus came in, and Grillby’s arm finally stopped flaring, although it was still purple. Sans looked a bit beat, but happy. 

“heh, maybe i could help out more often.” Sans was pretty exhausted. But spending the morning watching Grillby work had been pretty nice. Telling puns every time he delivered an order… the way Grillby actually laughed… how his flame flickered when he laughed…

“…didn’t you work late last night…”

“oh crap. yeah. i wanted to get to the lab early today.”

“…Oh, Sans I am sorry, I wanted to talk to you and I just made your day more stressful…”

“what did you want to talk about?”

“…it is a bit personal… how about tonight?”

********

Sans finally got done with his draft around ten… Grillby should be closing. The tired skeleton took a sip of coffee, pranked James the tech guy with a woopie cushion to the chair, and teleported lab coat and all into his favorite chair at Grillbys. The tall elemental was holding the buttercup from earlier, and had made Sans a Grilled cheese with a tomato… cut into a heart shape. The tired skeleton happily vacuumed down the sandwich.

“… Someone could have been sitting there…” 

Sans finished the sandwich and leaned onto the bar.

“don’t worry grillbz, bars closed from what i can tell. besides, unless it’s you i’ll get off them.” Sans leaned back again and twirled around in the swivel bar seat. 

“so what did you want to talk about anyway… how your name was secretly grillbert?”

“…ugh… please do not call me that…anything else?”

“my hot tamale?”

“…sans… did you know bones can shatter if you heat them enough…”

“heat master?”

“…Sans… 1500-1900 o F…is in my range…”

“flamecheeks? Firecracker?” Grillby groaned. Time to switch tactics

“…You know what…sure thing bone daddy…”

The light in Sans eyes went out as he cringed. Grillby had to strike now while the iron was hot… or it would be Grillbert forever…

Grillby leaned in…

“…hey…bone daddy… want to come a little closer…”

“oh god no.”

“… So… yeah…bone daddy… I like that…surprisingly I can choke it down… and with a little practice… I promise to call you that…everywhere… at the bar…. with friends…loudly…especially in front of Papyrus … bone daddy… nice ring to it…” 

Sans did not have to think long. He poked Grillby in his stupid smiling face.

“so, i should stick with grillbabe?”

“…sure thing sansy…”

“sansy’s fine. DB used to call me that…” Sans smiled and swung around the chair again. “so what did you want to actually talk about?”

Grillby sighed and sat down next to Sans, handing him a drink.

Oh god, why was Grillby going quiet… Sans took a drink... which was not alcohol but milk?

“uh milk?”

“…Oh Papyrus said it was good for skeletons once…”

“uh thanks…”

“…look I’ve got motor oil today, too… for health…Sans… its about your HP…”

Sans let out a sigh of relief. 

“woah, you scared me for a second. i already told you, its no problem.”

“…Look Sans… with that fight… I realized you really care about me… you spent so much time keeping me from taking much damage…well… I really care about you too. your HP… has it always been that low?... Maybe there’s a way to bring it up…”

“look, it- it used to be a little higher, but i never had a lot. besides i’m good at dodging, honestly i should be more worried about your health, mr. seven speed...” Sans rook a swig of the milk.

“…yeah I take after the old man…. But what about when you get older?”

“grillbz-” 

“…I made a couple’s doctor’s appointment Thursday…we should do a couple’s appointment soon anyway... maybe I can help you… sometimes when you date… HP can go up! ... If you are uncomfortable I can cancel… but I want to help you get better…?” Grillby reached out and held Sans hand… his arm was still purple and occasionally flaring... 

“grillby…” Sans had heard of HP fluctuating with dating… Hope tended to increase with happiness… Sans looked at Grillby… the elemental’s eyes were blazing with determination. It would be nice to have some more hope…

“ok. it can’t hurt. haven’t been to the doctors in a few years anyway.” Sans nuzzled into Grillby, letting warmth wash over him.

“but maybe we can still have a few proper drinks?”

Grillby all but tossed the motor oil out the window, and grabbed some tequila from under the bar… the couple enjoyed a few drinks…

“maybe we can go upstairs and start the healing process.” 

“…Sure thing doc…” 

******************************************************

Grillby and Sans stumbled upstairs and found themselves on the couch. The couple fooled around a bit with their usual kissing. Grillby’s breath was a little bit like car exhaust… but Sans didn’t mind. 

Grillby was still surprised every time he felt Sans open his mouth. The skeleton lay on top of the elemental and Grillby paused to kiss him on the collarbone. 

Sans reached his hands under Grillby’s shirt…onto his chest…Grillby let his fire flare between Sans fingertips… oh hell that felt nice as always… Sans kept reaching his hand around and… there went the shirt. Grillby peeled Sans’ off, and the two merged together… souls growing closer… Sans reached his hands down… to Grillby’s stomach… Grillby looked so happy…Sans really wanted to make him feel good.

“…oh Sans… you feel great…” Grillby stroked Sans’ collarbones, little flames dancing down Sans ribs…

“mhmmm, that feels nice too, grillbz.” Sans kept moving his hands on Grillby’s stomach. Grillby looked so happy… Sans wanted it to keep going… he moved his hands down to the elemental’s hips, and down and towards Grillby’s- Sans suddenly lifted his hands out. 

“eh sorry… uhm is that ok?”

“… yes… but is it really ok with you…?” Grillby suddenly sat upright. 

“hmm… maybe...”

“…Well, especially if its just maybe…Maybe we can wait a bit… want to just snuggle a bit instead?”

“ yeah i think- just snuggling for a bit would be nice.” 

“…definitely… we should talk about it first anyway…”

Grillby snuggled into Sans, hands chastely on his shoulders, and Sans found his way back to Grillby’s waist. The alcohol faded, and the pair talked a bit…about what they were comfortable with… it was actually pretty fun… if a little awkward at first. Sans was definately comfortable with less, so Grillby really wanted Sans to feel good and in control.

"...So to be clear you like your spine being touched..."

"mhhm hmm." Sans was blushing.

“…Sans…Sansy…Sorry if it made you a bit unconfortable to talk about it... but I just want things to go nice… never feel like you have to rush… and tell me if I ever do anything uncomfotable, even if you said it was ok before...”

“mhhm, ok grillbabe, heh... its fine. i'm glad we talked about it.” Sans bonk-kissed Grillbys hand.

“…Well…I do not want to talk about it now.. but honestly… I was rushed a bit my first time…”

“oh grillbz… i’m sorry.”

“…and…well… I really care about you… I want you to feel respected and loved…”

i promise i want you to feel respected and loved, too” Sans glowed his eye, and the blue flame shined brightly. Sans moved his head into Grillby, and the blue flame mixed into Grillby.

“…Aww Sans… I think… I think I love you.” Grillby had probably felt this way for a long time…

“i think i love you too grillbz.” It had only been a few months, but well… yeah the feeling was there.

The two fell asleep in each other’s arms, folded up on the couch.

 

**********************************

Grillby came to pick Sans up early on Thursday. Papyrus smiled, eating his cheerios, as the two held hands, and short cutted away. The couple seemed to be growing closer every day. 

Sans short cutted them across a few points of Ebott till the reached the new monster health care clinic. The large brick building was one of the first things Asgore and Toriel had funded once the monsters came to the surface. 

Grillby and Sans kept holding hands until they reached the front desk. It was both their first time at the clinic, so they had to fill out some paperwork…

A scorpion monster with a nametag that read Janet sat at the front desk and handed them their insurance and background info sheets, which the pair filled out. Sans had a little trouble since he was on a human insurance plan… he poked at his teeth…honestly he should use the dental sometime… and brought their worksheets back up.

“I am going to forward your medical Hissstory and disclosure form to the doctor from the Monster Medical database. Oh, and you are Sans and Grillby, hissss-here for the Couple’s appointment on His-HP and the basics?” Janet the scorpion monster hissed.

Sans and Grillby nodded.

“Hiiii-Honestly that is such a good thing to do whenever you start a relationshissss. Did you want to have them test you with our new DATING system technology while you are Hi-here?”

“uhhh, what’s that” Sans was curious.

“Oh, its basically a magical compatibility report, for long term couples… its great, especially for different monster types. My boyfriend is a hissss-hamster monster. It hi-helped us find out some important things; apparently my poison would kill hiss-him. It also tests for MSTIs/MSTDs, warns you of complications or magical reactivity, tells you if you compatible for spawn- er offspring, and a few specifics depending on your monster type….”

“…that’s a lot…”

“Yes, so many couples are coming hissss- here for it, partly because its a fun thing, but really it is important for long term health.” the scorpion lady held out her claw with a pen for Grillby. “If you don’t want it, its ok, but I think its informative and only 20 gold.”

“…uh… well… I guess we could try it… if you want Sans?” 

“sure, who knows the next time you can convince me to come to a doctor, grillbz.”

Janet handed them a pamphlet on the DATING system and a second form.

Monsters got a very basic reproductive and sexual education in high school- but there were so many different types of monsters- and lots of different magical capabilities and defenses, that if you wanted detailed information about safe practices you should talk to a clinician.

The pair read about the DATING system. Apparently it helped couple’s especially if you were an unusual pair- figure out what … activities… would work. 

They flipped through the pamphlet together, filled with medical cartoons of monster soul and magical compatibility. Sans realized he was probably a “necrotic” monster. 

“right. i should probably have known that…”

There was a little chart with compatible monster types for having kids. Elementals and necrotics had “sometimes.”

On the third page in, was a cartoon picture of two monsters sharing a soul, a cartoon clam monster and a water elemental... Grillby was surprisingly the first one to blush.

The two closed the pamphlet and waited in the uncomfortable seating. There was a little play area for young monsters, a hodge podge of surface magazines on health…and Mettaton’s new magazine “Glamour.” On the walls, there was a cork board with all the new monsterlings that the clinic had helped advise on. Sans pointed to a little green flame monster in a sailor outfit.   
“did you look like that grillbz?”

“…no… I used to be blue.”

“blue?” Sans glowed his eye.

“…Well greenish blue… it is healthy for a flameling to grow brightly for a few weeks…” 

Sans nodded.

“that’s cool.”

“…its incredibly hot actually… I melted my crib twice…poor Dad had to scrub the molten steel off me…”

Eventually a young looking ghost monster floated into the room. “Mr. Dhosi and Dr. Skeleton… my name is Doctor B. Jangles please follow me.”

“Dhosi?”

“…its an extinct volcano… My father was born there…also… Skeleton?...”

“…legal name… asgore probably thought of it…”

The two got up and followed the blue glowing ghost wearing a white coat, and possessing a clipboard with blue magic. 

“So you made the appointment for a usual couple checkup… I’m happy to see you signed up for the DATING system… and that you wanted to ask about HP in relationships. I am going to start just by taking a quick magic reading, which will help me answer your HP questions while I hook you up to the DATING device. “ Dr. Jangles paused for a second, and put a magic thermometer into Sans mouth. He opened a special cabinet and got a more sturdy metal thermometer for Grillby. He continued, 

“Just to be clear, you two are comfortable with medical disclosure to each other, right? You signed it, but I just want a secondary confirmation.”

Grillby and Sans nodded yes, mouths closed on the magical thermometers… Dr. Jangles gently removed them with his ectoplasmic magic and wrote down some numbers onto his notepad, shimmering in and out of phase with the room as he did so.

“Well, then. Your readings are excellent Sans… I haven’t seen magic that high since I measured Asgore… and Grillby, yours seem nice, too. Maybe a bit underused, but a few room heating exercises or extra fireblasts a week should fix it…”

Great… reckless fire magic…joy.

“Now that we have that out of the way, let’s talk about your HP. Grillby’s is, of course slightly higher than expected for an eternal flame… due to your father’s levels. However, it is fluctuating at a larger mean than is healthy, ten points up and down every week. You are probably overworking yourself… I bet it is up on Saturdays, down on Mondays” Grillby looked a little embarrassed... it was true…

“ Sans, your records indicate that your HP has been at 1 for several years… considering your previous work indicated on the form… not completely unexplained. Junior Royal Scientist, Sentry, Judge…. These are extremely stressful positions… that tend to drain HP…. Other monsters with such jobs tend to have low HP, and while one HP is the most extreme I have seen… in a non-critical patient… you seem to be standing alright. Also, considering that you were born with five, it is not unprecedented. 

“…Five…?” Grillby gasped.

“Yes necrotic based monsters such as Sans tend to have very low HP at birth… although it should escalate heavily in early adulthood… your birth mother also ha…has very low HP… so it does not surprise me.” 

“my…birth….”

“Sans… “ Grillby put a fiery hand on Sans shoulder.

“Ah… right…” Dr. Jangles looked apologetic, “Oh my, I am so sorry-I thought you knew. Um.” The young doctor looked uncomfortable but continued on, placing a noncorporal stub of a hand on Sans other shoulder. 

“I am incredibly sorry for the shock… Since coming to the surface, Asgore has agreed to comply with human adoption and information laws of this state… while your parents identities have remained with the state-unless you choose to legally ask for disclosure-that is- their overlying medical records have been made available to you. As an adult over the age of 21 you have full access to your family medical history. You may …may wish to go over them.”

“uhm. is there anything i should know…” Dr. Jangles nodded.

“aside from the low HP tendency on your mother’s side…You may be interested to know you are half Mummy on your fathers’… meaning you have a slight risk for osteoporosis and … oh a moderate tendency for Tomb Curse- that’s from the Mummy’s, err, your birthfather’s side-but most manifestations of that don’t start till age 400.”

“…Tomb curse…?” Grillby did not like the sound of that…

“Tomb curse, is a very manageable magical mental disease… involves hoarding gold or other items and building a tomb to guard… similar to other area guarding/hoarding diseases… Dragon monsters have similar tendencies… my advice…try to avoid starting large collections”

Sans tried to imagine himself building a pyramid and hoarding treasure in it… what would he even hoard? ketchup bottles? Although, maybe he should keep Paps’ action figure collection from getting any larger… still he didn’t think either of them would purposefully shun the sunlight.

“As for average HP at adulthood- for necrotics it is 300 HP… a ghost or ghast is close to 90-300 usually… a brawny skeleton or zombie can hit 400, and a mummy or ghoul can hit 1000. Still considering your circumstances, not unprecedented… personally, I only have 70 myself.”

So Paps took after dad. Dr. Jangles backed up and gave a genuine ghostly smile,

“Now the good news, is that yes, HP can go up if you are in a fulfilling relationship or if things become less stressful in general, thus Sans’ HP may go up over time. His HP cap is still at 5, and while that may not seem like much, would be an improvement. Let me check the details, may I read your soul Sans?

“oh its fine, go ahead”

Grillby looked away politely as the ghostly doctor worked, using a fine line of very pale blue magic to enter Sans chest...

Dr. Jangles carefully drew out just the pointed end of Sans soul and levitated out some oculars. 

“I am reading the exact fluctuations of your soul over the last several years from your posterior soul base. You see the HP listed on the stat table is an average of the last year. There were times a few years ago where it dipped to 0.8 or 0.9-very worrying. It would have been risky to try treating it before now, some trauma was holding it down. But recently, it has been climbing, which means we can try a few things” Dr. Jangles gave a ghostly smile.

“so grillby’s already a positive influence… two hp here i come.”

“Actually, Sans, it is at 1.43 at the moment… that does not mean you will necessarily reach 5.0 anytime soon, once you hit one HP the process usually takes years to climb up a few points, and this specific rate it would take another seven…. “

Grillby sighed.

“However, the soul acts on a bit of a delay. The increase here is probably from coming to the surface… in another month or two the relationship will hopefully have an additional positive effect. Relationships usually net 5 HP a year on average. So, keeping in mind that Sans had a low cap to begin with, we may eventually see some real progress. “

Sans hi-fived Grillby.

“Two more things about HP. Sans, your cap never exceeded much higher than 5.0. If we want to give you the best chance of higher HP… we need to get you started on this HP cap fluctuator. Although, I think you can wait … your HP will not hit the cap immediately, but I would like to test you again in six months… if it is nearing the cap, we can start you on Cardioectizitol. We use it on slightly smaller monsters who are older usually… Moldsmalls, Froggits, etc, so the dose should be safe and have only minor side effects on your well being. You may get a few laughing spells, tell more jokes, that sort of thing.”

Dr. Jangles paused. “I am writing this all down for you… by the way…Your HP cap may also dip down temporarily… so another reason to wait till you are at least 4 HP. You can take it as long as you would like, but realistically given your case, I want to aim for 10 HP, could be higher could be lower, I can’t guarantee we will go past 5. If we really push, my estimate for a new maximum cap could be as high as 20- but you will need to work on any other issues you may have…Grillby can’t do it alone.”

Dang, 20 HP…way to go science… 

“Finally, I hate to bring this up, but should your relationship… change, Sans you will probably not lose any more HP, but it will most likely stop growing for a while. Thus, I can only hope that whatever lies ahead, you treat each other with respect and honesty, it is best for both you.” Dr Jangles frowned, before giving a feint smile again. 

"And you both could use a vacation!"

With that the doctor slipped Sans’ soul back into his chest.

“Any more questions on HP?” Grillby and Sans shook their heads no. Sans was feeling kindof hopeful…

**********************************************************


	13. In which Papyrus thinks he is part spider

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grillby and Sans get some information about skeletons and elementals.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well. I was grading this weekend. 300 papers... here is a nice chapter!

**********************************************************

 

“All right, if you have any more questions, feel free to ask… would you like the relationship consultation and DATING report?” Dr. Jangles smiled. This was the better part of the job.

Sans was secretly excited about this… it was pretty interesting.

“So do you guys remember your monster types from high school?”

“uhm… yeah… animal monsters…elementals…” Sans had not been interested in this sort of thing in high school. If it didn’t involve math…

“…did they even teach that…?” Grillby hadn’t exactly been the best student… he honestly couldn’t remember much from high school.

“Well…that’s ok. The curriculum has changed a lot recently anyway. As a refresher, there are many types of monsters: animal type, necrotic- aka based on reanimated death, demonic, elemental, vegetal and other Eukaryotic, Prokaryotic, and Compound and Abstract Object monsters.”

“compound and abstract object monsters?”

“Those are your dice headed monsters, your sentient lamp monsters… basically monsters that are based on a non living object that are not an element. There is some fierce debate there… diamond headed monsters argue that they are carbon, and thus elementals. Although they do not summon diamonds,” Dr. Jangles looked at Grillby nervously, “but I maintain no stance on the issue myself…” 

Grillby shrugged… he was well aware… and honestly did not really care... 

“Now, the most important thing is that no matter what type of monster you are, there are so many different types of subcategories and magical combinations… that aside from a few well known exceptions there is a chance you can have offspring. Animal monsters being the trickiest… most tend to only be compatible with animals monsters or humans…”

“humans?”

“Well, the monster tends to be dominant in appearance, but sometimes you get something like a centaur, spider person, satyr, mermaid, llamataur, or a minotaur… half human animal half other type of animal thing. It’s the same as a dino-moose or a dragon-rabbit, not common, but well I met a couple the other day that are going for it. Since we have been Underground for so long these monsters have become very rare, they were targeted during the war. But well, I think we will see more now that we are back on the surface...”

Sans though he had met a minotaur once, but the guy always wore a suit, so it was hard to tell…

“Now, I do not want to get your hopes up…the two most important factors with this are actually whether your magic types merge, and whether you are more physical or magical. Elementals are clearly on the magical side of things, and obviously Grillby has fire-based magic. Skeletons can go either way, but considering you have such high magical potential I am leaning on more magical. Skeletons always have necrotic magic and usually have a secondary flavor. While it is true that most skeletons prefer non-magic attacks, or sticking to simple bone throws, almost all have an innate ability for a secondary type, often unexplored. The one concern, is that Sans’ secondary blue magic has an unusually strong icy aura… Perhaps… you have noticed. This may or may not be problematic.”

Grillby put a hand on Sans’ unhelpfully cold shoulder.

“I can tell you we do not have any record of fire elemental skeleton relations… A long time ago there were reports of skeletons with flaming skulls… but I suspect that is more that they had fire flavor to their magic. We in fact only have a few cases of skeletons with other necrotic monsters such as zombies, ghouls, ghosts, etc. I have one or two cases of fire and ice elementals… they usually cannot produce offspring… although I have two cases where they…somehow had a water or steam elemental” Dr. Jangles paused for a moment.

“So…I have told you the background would you still like to get tested, understanding that I cannot promise compatibility?”

Sans and Grillby had talked about this…and no matter what… it would not change anything... this was just for fun. 

“yes” Sans and Grillby agreed in unison. 

“All right, let me hook you up then! If there is anything you would normally do on the DATING HUD try to re-enact it… keeping in mind I will be present.” Dr. Jangles made a face indicating that someone had forgotten at least once…

Grillby put his bowtie on a little straighter…looking hot. Sans shrugged and slouched over, putting his hands in his jacket pockets… looking cool. Perfect.

“The device stimulates the DATING HUD screen, and uses it to collect information, as well as information on your respective magical energies, attacks, and dating power levels. That combined with my knowledge of your monster types should give you some good guidance.” 

Dr. Jangles put what seemed to be a red EKG hat device on Sans’ skull, which had to be adjusted to fit… wires trailing to a computer in the corner. He got out a sturdier one for Grillby, coated in the same metal the thermometer had been in… Grillby could control his heat levels well, but he supposed it was sensitive equipment. The ghost stuck a wired EKG patch above each of their souls to the machine… and another wire in between their souls.

“…Romantic…” Grillby did not look quite as snazzy as he normally did… the red EKG hat clashed awfully and pushed his fire hair down, giving his a flamey bowl cut of fire swooping over his face. Luckily Sans seemed to be pretty engrossed by the device to notice Grillby’s hair.

Sans watched the device as it was set up… the computer screen just had different columns of numbers in a gridded chart… Sans summoned a magic bone, the chart went crazy. Before Sans could mess around more, Dr. Jangles flipped a switch. 

“Ok… Dating START!” 

Sans and Grillby suddenly found themselves taken to the Dating HUD by the machine. REEL IT IN! was staying steadily high, THU had a cloudy Sun, the dog was fluctuating, crime was rectangles, their egg was small and blue, and the population was decreasing alarmingly.

Grillby stood there in a pose, with his arms folded leaning back onto Population. Sans was sitting on the Crime box…. Grillby laughed. The moment was interrupted when Dr. J’s text entered the screen.

“OK Just start dating! Remember to be natural! I’ll try to remove myself as best as I can, but there will be a few points where I tell you what to choose. I need you guys to try out a few different options, but you can start however you want.” Dr. Jangles faded out with a ghostly wave…

Grillby tried to lean onto the Population graph more… and slipped…. The hat stayed on his head at least… but the still invisible Dr. jangles had to fix one of the wires that popped out. Grillby looked embarrassed. Sans would have to start… what were his options…

ACT→ Computer puns, laugh at his fall, and offer some ketchup… Sans never understood what kind of jerk would pick the nastier options. Two of those were good choices… but Sans wanted to save the ketchup.

“so, uh i CPU a guy who looks pretty cute.” 

“so uh, don’t string me along here buddy;” 

“you seem like a nice GUI”

Grillby’s turn…Oh crap… was Sans telling jokes about computers?… uh…

Suddenly a second dog entered the radar. The clouds parted from the Sun meter…

ACT → Laugh at his Puns, Try to Make own pun, facepalm. 

Grillby made a pair of finger guns and made his own pun,

“…uh… you can look… but don’t touch… you could get burned by my firewall…” Grillby tried his best sometimes… Grillby was pretty sure he heard Dr. Jangles sigh.

To Dr. Jangles uttered in disbelief as the dating power ticked up. The dog flashed on the radar. The population flatlined!

Sans again…

ACT → Laugh at his … pun, Sincerely laugh at his pun, ignore his pun

Sans loved whenever Grillby was happy, and as far as Sans was concerned there was no such thing as a bad pun. It was cute. Sans smiled at Grillby and let out a hearty skeletal laugh.

“GREAT Guys, now I need each of you to give each other an item!” Dr. jangles piped up.

Grillby felt a little better. What did he have in his inventory, maybe a nice gift…ugh nope. A pinecone, some receipt, and dog residue…oh that would be fun… 

“…Sans…check out this trick… Lesser Dog taught it to me”

GIVE → Dog residue

Sans got the Dog residue… and stared at it looking confused. The population chart lowered for a second.

“…Now use it…”

Sans tried to USE it, and smiled when another dog residue appeared in his inventory slot. Again and again and again….Sans pockets were filled with dog hair and Salad… 

The two goofballs spawned another couple of residues and salads, and both fell to the ground laughing.

““uh, hey guys… can we stop getting lesser dog hair all over my office… Sans can you give Grillby a gift?”

GIVE→ hotdog, catdog, ketchup packet

Sans gave Grillby the catdog, and at this point he knew the flame had a weakness for extra ketchup mustard, which he coated the dog in…

“…These are really cute Sans…you should consider serving them at the restaurant again…” Grillby popped the whole hot cat in his fiery mouth. It was really good.

The dating power was climbing pretty high. The dog turned into a fiery cat in the radar screen! The crime rectangles flashed.

“Ok, one last thing, can you each do an attack of some sort?

ACT→ attack

Grillby and Sans simultaneously “attacked.” Grillby very carefully rolled up his sleeves, held out his hands. He let the flames rise up, and form a large fiery heart, kind of like a shield. Sans, blushed. He summoned a very tiny skull cannon, about the size of a grapefruit. Grillby actually thought it looked pretty cute… It shot a very tiny blast of laser that looked like an arrow into Grillby’s fire heart. Grillby’s flames turned a bit blue, but caught the arrow. 

They were both smiling…and Grillby’s flames were turning blue from blushing, too. Dr. Jangles scribbled some notes down.

Dating power maxed out! The crime rectangles turned into stars! The Egg was red! Fifty cats filled the radar screen!

More importantly, Sans glowed a blue color, and Grillby- although it was hard to tell- glowed more brightly red.

“Excellent! You maxed out quite quickly!” Dr. Jangles phased back into existence and started to frantically type some notes.

 

Grillby and Sans found themselves out of the Dating HUD... and the pair kindly swept up the dog hair and salad off the floor, which the ghostly Doctor appreciated.

“Well, excellent job you two.” Dr. Jangles typed a few last notes into the computer. “I have another patient in a bit, so I will need a few hours before I can analyze this, but I can send it to you tonight”

Sans hugged the elemental as he dropped the Grillby back to his bar, before heading to the lab for a late night… why did they have to have a data presentation tomorrow?

**********************************  
Sans got back home only a bit before midnight, thankfully finished with his presentation. Exhausted, he teleported straight onto his regular couch cushion … and got stuck with his left arm in Papyrus’s right, 

“GAH...SANS YOU NEED TO STOP DOING THAT.”

“hey bro, hey grillbz.” Sans yawned.

Sans always teleported into empty space… sometimes the fact that the two skeletons had space between their bones was a problem… although his hadn’t happened for a few years. Sans usually just got sticks stuck between his arm bones occasionally.

Sans and Papyrus took a minute to detach their radius and ulna, while Grillby, who had been sitting on the couch with Papyrus, tried not to watch. Grillby had to stop himself from grabbing his own arm when Sans popped his off.

Papyrus glared at Sans as he readjusted his ulna.

“YOU CAN JUST SHORTCUT TO THE DOOR!

“no need to get wound up about it bro. i need to wrap things up with Grillby, but i have some news to tell you later about our family history, we have some ancestors who are-.”

“NYEH HEH HEH…PUNS ABOUT TYING THINGS? DO NOT TELL ME…WE ARE PART SPIDER?”

“i’ll tell you later bro.” 

“NYEHEHEH, I WOULD NOT BE SURPRISED, WITH MY KNITTING SKILLS.” Papyrus had just learned to knit from Toriel. The very lumpy socks he had given Sans did not back up his claim. Papyrus climbed up the stairs, trying his best to creep up them like a spider would…

“…Please actually tell him he is part spider…”

“it’s tempting.”

Grillby pulled his laptop out.

“…So…skelemuffin… you want to see the results?...” Grillby was still trying a few different pet names out.

Sans nodded and curled into Grillby’s side. Grillby opened the pdf…

Magically Compatible With Precaution- wait a year: (90% likely to have offspring)

“well, that’s pretty good odds.”

Congratulations. It is only 90% because this is a first instance scenario. However, I am confident that you should be compatible based on your unusually high level of magical synergy. The fact that Sans magic was able to stably interact with Grillby’s fire indicates that you should be able to have offspring. Either partner could be the carrier, with a slightly higher chance of Sans being the carrier (60%) due to his higher magical reserves. However, if you are trying for a monsterling, you would need to take some precautions. 

Our calculations indicate that while it is possible for you to have either an elemental entirely or a skeleton entirely, you may have a child with both features. Am certain that they will have some high magic levels.

You will be able to tell by the soul color of the developing fetus:  
Red: Fire Elemental (40%)  
Blue or white: Necrotic (20%) (white physically inclined, blue magically inclined)  
Pink or Purple: Both (40%)

The soul will eventually turn white later into term, so be observant. A skeleton is less likely due to Sans’ HP, a viable child will likely take the form of an elemental or take after Grillby. Either way with Sans’ condition and family history, do not expect high HP immediately. Sans magic is also much stronger, so there is a high chance it will adopt his magic.

“daww they will probably take after you, good.”

“…Come on Sans, a skeleton with a flaming skull would be super cool…although…besides even if they are an elemental they would have some of your features…” 

“like being short? if we are lucky they will be a tall fire elemental.” 

“…I would think they would be better it they were a tiny skeleton…”

“at least could they be a tall skeleton?” 

“…so like Papyrus?...”

“uh. i guess- but on fire at least. or made of magma. something cooler than me. or a throwback to the mummy ancestry”

“…You mean a throwback to your spider ancestry…”

Sans looked at the laptop and decided to keep reading it.

Mr. Dhosi: if you are the carrier you would need to keep your internal temperature at or below 600oF in the case of a developing non Fire elemental. This can be done by regularly exhausting your fire magic to keep your temperature lower. Will require assistance towards late terms due to exhaustion. Additionally, there may be complications with the “shortcut” ability late term if inherited.

“…So…if I carry the infant they will shortcut me around the city…”

“maybe they can just get your magic instead?”

General Precautions: you need to use your magic more, or you could risk having a flare during intimacy. Skeletons can handle pretty high level of heat but will feel pain far before the 1000o F safety cutoff. Most other activities should be fine.

Sans snickered. Grillby face-palmed.

Dr. Skeleton: if you are the carrier and the fetus is not entirely a skeleton, you will need to occasionally take a small drop in HP if the monsterling attacks, a normal thing for a healthy young elemental. You will also need to raise your internal temperature throughout your term, which also has a chance of incurring damage. Thus I recommend that you wait at least a year before attempting pregnancy.

“…How would we raise our internal temperature…?”

“i have no idea? Set me on fire? sans the amazing walking hotpocket.” 

“…you’d be cute on fire…” Grillby winked.

“grillbabe, if that came from absolutely anyone else, i would shortcut out of here so fast…” 

General precautions otherwise: Boss Monster levels of damage +. Your “karmic retribution” ability is something you need to talk about with Grillby. Additionally, you can do 40 damage a second and your turns take 6-7 seconds. This is 4-4.5 turns for Grillby considering his lower dodging capabilities/speed. I am sure you will be fine, but just be aware.

We look forward to helping you in the future. 

Regards,  
Dr. B. Jangles

That was the end of the report. The back had a few pie charts with the percentages of different scenarios in pastel colors.

Sans sighed… damn... 4-5 turns. Sans had calculated his damage output before… but he did not like thinking about how much HP he did to other monsters, ugh. He did not want to see Grillby’s face right now.

Grillby just looked confused and looked at the screen again.

“…karmic retribution?..”

“allows me to basically drain your health. one point of damage for every monster dusted or evil deed committed. i don’t think its going to be a problem unless you are secretly a serial killer. which i know you aren’t.”

“…woah… I hope you never have to use…” Grillby paused. Sans had probably had to use it before.

“in this timeline…as judge i had to use it if someone came with ill intent towards asgore. so a few times. they surrendered after a single turn, so they were ok.” Sans sighed. Those monsters had been criminals, but…still…the looks on their faces. 

“…Why do I need to know about it?...”

“well. i guess the point is that i should be open with you. and there is a more relevant part.” 

Sans sighed a second time, “ok, so don’t panic,” Sans paused and Grillby nodded, “but i can basically passively can see what type of morality a person has…past misdeeds… sort of thing.”

“….and you forgot to mention this before?...” Grillby sat more upright, moving the laptop away and forcing Sans to sit up himself. Grillby was starting to panic, which is exactly what normally happened when Sans tried to tell people about the ability.

“well, honestly i kind of barely notice it myself. it’s just always there. in the background. it’s also kind of a thing you don’t want to bring up early in a relationship. like oh, by the way i see you killed a village worth of humans once during the war gerson, or hey buddy i noticed you cheated on your ex. no reason to bring most things up. there’s always context that i don’t understand anyway. i promise i would have brought it up after a while.” 

Grillby was still looking upset, his flame was flickering and red… and the worst part was that Sans knew why.

“…So you can see what I did in the past…” Grillby thought back to that time he had lost control of his magic… it had been- it was only partly an accident. Sans took a deep breath, he had to be honest.

“well. yes. And honestly grillby, you are one of the nicest monsters i know. it doesn’t matter to me. i’ve known about it since i first met you… everyone has some trouble with magic at some point in their lives…”

“…I did not only lose control… it was partly my fault…” 

“grillby, do you have any idea the sort of things i’ve seen. you. are. fine. do you want to talk about it?”

“…Not today… I don’t want you to be scared of me…”

“oh. My Asgore. Grillby no. speaking of which: asgore. i am friends with him. He Killed Six Human Kids. you are fine. you are the sweetest monster i know. every monster i know has something they have done in the past they aren’t proud of. it is what happens afterward that is important. honestly you should be more scared of me… i’m a freak.”

“…you are not a freak…”

“being able to drain a monsters health, read their past sins, dust them in 4 turns.” 

“…those are special abilities that make you… you… besides… it wasn’t a problem when we were fighting before…”

“i would never go all out on your parents during a fight for fun. honestly i understand why my parents couldn’t keep me. if my mom had low hp.”

“…Sans… I don’t have… karmic recalibration or… whatever… it is… but your parents were crazy…I keep saying this… I have never met a monster that can control their magic better…. And I know elementals…don’t have the best control… but that’s why I can tell…”

“so you are ok with it.” Sans had curled himslef up into a ball shape during his stress.

“…Woah…. Sans… no… it makes me happy… that you are strong… ” 

Grillby pushed the computer away and lifted Sans onto his lap,

“…And you are ok… with me having lost control once…”

“absolutely grilbly. i think we feel the same way.”

The two hugged. They switched back to talking about having a hypothetical kid together, and settled on a blue fire elemental with just fire powers and laser cannons. It was a bit silly, but the joking helped the two calm down. So calm that the two accidently fell asleep on the couch again…


	14. In which we learn about the past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang meet up for a dinner with Toriel who talks about old Monster Kingdoms. Skeletons are unusual. but Grillby wants to try skeleton dating customs anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can finally write again now that I am done teaching for the semester. Poor Sans and Grillby have an awkward encounter and then we get a bit more monster history. I want the next chapter to focus more on the pair interacting, but I think the backstory is fun, and I wanted to finish it for a bit.
> 
> Thank you all so much for reading! And look forward to super cool skeleton dating customs.

It was a busy morning at Grillby’s, one of the rabbits had told a friend about the waffles with strawberries, who told another friend, who told another friend, rabbit families were now coming in for lazy late waffle or pancake breakfasts. Its not like they did not have waffles underground, but it was much more popular on the surface, as was fresh fruit that hadn’t been grown in a small greenhouse in Hotland. Grillby might try growing some hot peppers, himself, although he suspected not many monsters would want them with breakfast.

 

Hundreds of years of not being able to grow any produce they wanted, meant that Monsters were putting it in everything. It was such a trend that Grillby was having to buy blueberries, strawberries, and apples daily as monsters were starting to request it with everything- side of blueberries with a burger, apples in their grilled cheese, and the worst- in Grillby’s opinion- mixed in with their fries-Grillby’s flames dipped at the thought.

 

Grillby was getting better at not burning the fruit while he handled it. Better enough that he was thinking about adding a new menu item… he would bring it to the dinner tonight and see if people liked it.

 

 

****************************************

 

Sans finished gathering data and writing in his lab notebook. He had told Grillby that he would be over in half an hour, but it couldn’t hurt to go a little early. Sans hung up his lab coat and short-cutted into Grillby’s apartment.

 

There was a nice smell in it, like some sort of pie… Sans headed past the kitchen.

“yo grillbz, i got done a little early.”

 

Sans heard Grillby banging around in his bedroom. Sans walked towards the door and noticed some flames were coming out from under the door… was the room on fire? God it was really hot all the sudden. Sans heard Grillby on the other side.

 

“….C..ome…on...”

 

Sans tried to shortcut outside but missed and fell into the kitchen…. Where he crashed into all of Grillby’s pots. Asgore dammit Sans…

 

A very unkempt and shirtless Grillby swung the bedroom door open and charged out of the bedroom. What the heck had made that noise?

 

Oh…

 

Sans was in his kitchen with a pot over his skull. Grillby lifted the pot off of Sans head.

 

“uh, hey grillbz.” Sans was looking embarrassed, his eyes darting back and forth in his eye sockets.

 

“…Sans… why did you…attack my cooking pans…?”

 

“well, i accidently short-cutted into them a bit.”

 

“…oh are you ok… is your magic alright…?”

 

Sans could lie, but he decided to come clean.

 

“well, truth is i already had short-cutted in here, and i um heard you, er, groaning, so i tried to-”

 

“…what… do you mean…?”

 

“and i promise that from now on i will try to just come to the front of your apartment and respect your privacy.”

 

“…my privacy….oh…” Grillby blushed and Sans was surprised as he started laughing.

 

“…Well… I wasn’t doing that… I was just exercising…”

 

“uh. right.”

 

“…look Sans…” Grillby helped Sans up from the floor and the two hung the pots back up as Grillby continued,

 

“…no lies… that sort of thing happens…” Grillby tried to avoid Sans’ gaze, “but seriously…I was trying to do more heat exercises… that Doctor is right…I need to use my magic more… here I’ll show you…”

 

Grillby pulled a reluctant Sans by his skeletal hand into the bedroom, which interestingly had a few chunks of what looked like melted steel bars scattered around it.

 

“…Yeah I guess I’m on a health kick… I went to the Pharmacy….” Sans looked at Grillby’s dresser. There was a plastic bag from Home Depot that looked like it had more bars in it… and some more pinewood in little 3x3 squares.

 

“you mean the hardware store.”

 

“… Well they are the only place that sells this stuff…anyway check it out...”

 

Grillby grabbed a chunk of pinewood and tossed it into his head… it burned up instantly… he then threw a steel bar into the air and concentrated his magic… a very hot puddle of molten steel fell to the mercifully concrete floor that was usually covered in a carpet.

 

“that’s pretty hot.”

 

“…yes it is…1144 Stressproof steel … pure steel melts around 1535oC…but there are some impurities here so... it is considerably lower…” Grillby realized Sans might have thought something else about his shirtless bar melting was hot. Grillby struck pose, to which Sans blushed and tried to nonchalantly look at the molten steel. Stupid sexy elemental…

 

“1535 oC huh- AHH FUCK!” Sans had poked the molten steel with his pointer finger… it was now covered in molten steel and Sans’ finger was in immense pain.

 

“..SANS… THAT temperature incinerates bone!” Grillby Grabbed Sans hand…

 

“its ok. i’m ok. just a small burn…not even a flesh wound.” Sans winced as he tried to joke. A very small layer of dust came off. Grillby picked a protesting Sans up and ran him to the kitchen.

 

Sans winced as Grillby picked up an icepack out of his freezer-which cost the elemental a few HP himself- and moved it to Sans hand.

 

“it’s ok, grillbabe it was just a quarter of a hp, don’t hurt yourself over me.”

 

“…..I’m… sorry Sans…I shouldn’t …have let you near that stuff…”

 

“no grillbz, i was acting dumb, this is not your fault. i just wan’t thinking. ‘sides- this is going to look really cool when it hardens.”

 

“…Once you heal a bit… I can carefully melt it off you.”

 

“well, until then… you’ve heard of the gold touch- but I’ve got the silver touch.” Sans poked Grillby with his now silvery grey finger. Grillby kissed Sans’ finger.

 

 

“…anyway… you can short-cut in if you want… but shortcutting into my room is probably a bad idea… I mean…I don’t want you to get burned…”

 

“heh, i’ll try to text you first. anyway, the dinner is in twenty minutes, i’m not exactly the world’s most punctual monster, but i like to keep it kindof on time for tori…”

 

“…wait I thought this was just with Alphys and Undyne…the Queen is going to-”

 

“former queen.”

 

“…Sure but she is still our representative…”

 

Sans did not think about it often but Toriel had been super busy running events at the school and organizing help for monsters in need at the surface. She helped Asgore with the negotiations and had organized multiple human monster relation building events, and had even gone on a national peacekeeping tour as one of the official Monster Kingdom representatives. Asgore had not told the humans about his previous involvements with humans- and Toriel, with her soft eyes and smaller horns, seemed to scare the humans less.

 

Not every human loved monsters, and they were currently for the most part barred to stay in the country… no one was complaining, it had only been a few months and almost every monster was still in Ebott city. Still-Jimmy Hotpants and Mettaton had to go through a lot of trouble to get passports.

 

“yeah, she’s still our leader.”

 

“…and here I am smelling like Iron and magnesium by products!...”

 

Grillby opened up a drawer and pulled out an entire box of sweet grass and lavender. He poured it over himself and carefully burned it up. Sans recognized it as what Grillby smelled like at the start of dates…it was nice.

 

“…so I made these apple tarts… I hope they are good enough for her majesty…”

 

“just call her tori, she loves baking, you’ll be fine.”

 

****************************

 

After convincing Grillby that he did not need to wear a full suit jacket, pointing to his own t-shirt and sweatpants, Sans, Grillby and the apple tarts popped over to Toriel’s home. Papyrus Undyne and Alphys were already there, Papyrus’ car was in the driveway.

 

Frisk answered the door, smiling at Sans and Grillby. Frisk loved it when monsters got together- so cute. Frisk and Papyrus had already gossiped about Sans and Grillby for a good half hour.

 

Frisk pulled Sans to the kitchen, and showed the skeleton a science test with an A+ to which Sans hi-fived the kid. The hopped around excitedly as Toriel came in.

 

“Hello Sans, and Grillby! Ooh I see you brought tarts, how sweet.”

 

Grillby’s eyes went wide… was that a pun?

 

“yeah, tori, Grillby made them, so you butter be careful, they might be hot.”

 

“Oh, Sans, I dough think that will be a problem. I use fire magic after all.”

 

“Eggcellent, I don’t want the pastry to as-salt your senses.”

 

Grillby stared.

 

“uh, oh, Sans, looks like our puns floured him.”

 

Grillby recovered.

 

“…I hope you find my apple tart…appealing…” Grillby could not think of a better apple pun on the spot. Sans and Toriel beamed.

 

“Sans, looks like you found a catch. Sorry for the pun wars Grillby, Sans and I have a bit of a joke competition going on at the moment.”

 

“Oh, I love puns your maj- er- Lady Toriel.”

 

“No need to be so formal, Toriel is just fine.”

 

Grillby tried not to get to nervous. She told him to call her “just Toriel.” His flame flickered. Sans could tell he was still nervous.

 

Papyrus and Undyne came into the kitchen to check on their pasta, which seemed to be finished.

 

“NYEHEHEH…. THE PASTA OF HOPES AND DREAMS HAS BEEN FINISHED.”

 

“We added Hot peppers to it in honor of Grillby, but we have some mild sauce for Frisk after what happened last time.” Undyne looked sad that there was a second sauce option.

 

“which one of you added the hot peppers?” Sans looked concerned.

 

“I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS AM AN EXPERT OF ALL CULINARY SPICES, BROTHER.”

 

“ok, i’ll try it.”

 

“what’s that supposed to mean punk?” Undyne waved the ladle at Sans.

 

“look, i like spicy food as much as the next monster, but after the ghost pepper icecream…”

 

“I THOUGHT IT WAS DELICIOUS!”

 

“your eyes watered for like four hours, bro.”

 

Grillby loved ghost peppers. But to surround them in something as deadly as icecream was awful, he was glad Sans agreed.

 

Everyone sat around the table and took some rotini with meat sauce. Alphys and Frisk aimed for the mild sauce, and Frisk put so much Parmesan on theirs Grillby wasn’t sure if there was more noodle or cheese. Undyne took a massive plate that she ferociously dug into, spilling sauce onto Papyrus, who did not show it, but now that Grillby knew him better, was probably screaming internally. Toriel and Sans were mostly busy trading puns, and were slowly eating their pasta, which probably added to Papyrus’ internal screaming. Sure enough there was a feint flicker of orange in Papyrus’ eye for a second. Grillby took pity on the skeleton, and complimented him on his cooking, the hot peppers were really great!

 

Toriel had also made homemade garlic bread. Grillby decided that he didn’t want to smell like garlic too badly, and just took a small piece. He immediately regretted his decision- it was delicious. Grillby went to grab another piece, but the breadbasket had only made it around the table once, Undyne having claimed a good four pieces. Sans nudged a spare piece to him, smiling.

 

“can’t be shy with tori’s famous garlic bread.”

 

“HER MAJESTY IS THE BEST AT BAKING.”

 

“Oh, Papyrus, dear, how many times do I have to tell you its just Toriel?”

 

“SORRY TORIEL. I NEED TO WORK ON THAT.” Papyrus had been trying honestly… he was just a very formal speaker in general.

 

“Besides, no one has been that formal for centuries. Actually, did you guys know that some of you wouldn’t have even called me ‘Queen’ if we were back in ancient times?” Toriel continued.

 

“huh?” Sans was intrigued. Everyone suddenly perked up.

 

“Yes, let me tell you about it, it relates to Papyrus wanting to know about skeletons, too, you see.” Toriel finished her pasta and sat back in the chair. Story time with Toriel.

 

“Back before the barrier fell, there were many monster kingdoms. Asgore and myself were two of many Animal Monsters part of the royal family ruling mostly over other animal based monsters. After Asgore’s uncle, Logore passed away – a mighty bull with the head of a Lion- the throne passed to him. In the few centuries we ruled before the war, there was more conflict from other monster groups than from the humans.” Toriel continued,

 

“Honestly only Alphys would have been one of my subjects.”

 

“BUT SANS AND I ARE BASED ON HUMANS- KINDOF, AND THEY ARE ANIMALS. ALSO UNDYNE IS A FISH-MONSTER.”

 

“Undyne would have been welcome in our Kingdom, it is true, but she would more likely live with the Fish headed Sea Emperor Toru. They were a beautiful people, with a half submerged Ocean Castle in the East. They were known for their artwork and musical mastery. Their capitol was destroyed from human battleship fire in the war, and I suspect any remains of the capitol would be washed away by now. Most of their citizens escaped, as they could out-swim the human ships. They only joined our Kingdom after their Emperor fell in battle. ”

 

“Wait, your telling me my ancestors were just some old peaceful artists?” Undyne whined.

 

“Undyne, dear, they weren’t just any old artists- they were the best artists- no one could compete with their statues and fountains- mixtures of water magic, fine gems, and sparkling sculpted sand. They were also extremely capable of magical fighting… do you know why the battleships had to destroy the Palace from afar? When armies approached the Palace, a magical siren song would mesmerize them into a trance. Most humans simply dropped their weapons and would walk away, their hearts at peace… and those that did not… were rooted and eventually swallowed by the shifting tides.”

 

Undyne’s eyes went wide,

 

“That’s pretty epic actually.”

 

“a-and the-they were the B-BEST artists, Undyne.” Alphys nudged Undyne.

 

“that’s cool. how about fire elementals?” Sans guessed that once they got started on skeleton’s Papyrus would have a million questions. He wanted to know about elementals.

 

“Grillby, you probably know this. Most elementals swore loyalty to no ruler, preferring to live near the sacred area they or their ancestors were born from with their kind. These highly magical areas were often remote… far away from other monsters or humans. It is possible more elementals have been nature born since the barrier has been up, but we don’t know yet. Many elementals refused to leave their sacred homes during the war, and fell. It sounds absurd, but it is said that an elemental is healthiest and happiest when connected to the source of their magic, with weaker ones needing it to sustain them. I think that is why many elementals are shy about leaving the Mount Ebott now. I have also heard that when you are at your sacred home… you have basically eternal life…you are fueld by it… and you can reflect and connect to the cosmos…the outer stars and life itself.”

 

Grillby nodded.

 

“…It is true…My father… was born from a volcano… in India… he wants to go back and connect…even though it is dormant… he says he could talk with the magma of the earth itself and the stars in the sky. Mom’s ancestral one is still active… In Italy… they are probably going to travel once restrictions are lifted…”

 

Sans sighed, connecting to the cosmos on such a deep level sounded beautiful,

 

“maybe we can live in a volcano grillbz?”

 

“…no…” Grillby flatly replied.

 

“but, you could live forever and you could probably talk to stars.”

 

“…Sans... I like volcanoes enough… but I prefer computers and restaurants that aren’t melted or on fire. Also my glasses would melt... so I’d have to live forever… blindly talking to some dumb star…”

 

“woah, grillbz, i’d consider going blind to talk to stars.”

 

“…That’s cause… you are a science nerd…” Grillby flicked Sans and Undyne hi- fived Grillby. Sans actually looked disappointed.

 

“…But… we can visit one… if you want…” Grillby smiled at Sans.

 

“SANS! GRILLBY! YOU CAN MOVE TO A SOOTY VOLCANO LATER. I WANT TO HEAR ABOUT SKELETONS. PLEASE TORIEL.” Papyrus leaned forward; he had been waiting for this all week.

 

“Ok, dear, but it is a little less fun. Promise you wont get upset if you don't enjoy it ok?”

 

Weird parts? Sans was sure it would just be boring and shrugged yes, while Papyrus nodded his head vigorously. Toriel continued.

 

“Sans and you would have lived in the Kingdom of Drice or the Kingdom of Necropolis.   Drice was, and may still be far north in an arctic wasteland. It was ruled by Lich King Zhurg, and his undead army, which you would have likely served in.”

 

“oh, that explains the lullaby about the king…” Sans pondered out loud. Toriel shuddered.

 

“Well, I am sorry you two are from his group… although it isn’t unexpected. Zhurg was….very powerful. He was known for his dark spells that could cause those who had… fallen… to reform. Thankfully, he never bothered our Kingdom, but every army that fought him, fought a war of attrition… their own ranks joining his after his mages scoured the battlefield… The worst part was that those under him would throw themselves away in battle… only to be re-resurrected… for this eternal life they would do anything he asked…they saw resurrection as sacred, and Zhurg as their god. I think he might have defeated the humans had he not finally succumbed to old age during he war… I was honestly relieved when he fell…”

 

Toriel shuddered a second time and looked distant. Sans thought the guy must have been terrible, if even Toriel had not been sad that he fell.

 

“does that mean all skeletons were once humans?” Frisk asked. Toriel had expected this question, but it was still a difficult one.

 

“Well…not really…” Papyrus was looking a bit uncomfortable. Toriel decided on a clearer answer.

 

“The are no more descended from humans than a wood monster could be considered descended from trees. Besides, Sans and Papyrus and all the necrotic monsters you see today are descendants of those original monsters. Very few originals are left, and they are mostly made of magic at this point” Toriel hoped that would be a bit comforting. Sans had suspected that something like that was the case.

 

“After Zhurg fell… we only took in those who agreed to shun the practice of turning the fallen into necrotics. They were very unhappy about it, but they had nowhere else to go, and I hope the knowledge of how to do it is lost at this point. It does not seem like humans have re-discovered the…art… since we have been gone, and I am not surprised since most humans were not fond of it to begin with.”

 

Papyrus was looking a bit calmer at least. Toriel continued.

 

“You also could have come from Necropolis, which was in a vast Egyptian Desert. Papyrus mentioned you are part mummy, so it is likely. The mummy Queen Chione- I met her once- was mostly insane, and had her subjects keep to themselves building endless mazes of tombs, filled with traps, treasures, and puzzles. They also reanimated the dead-but only of lost human adventurers. They kept to themselves, but during the war, the humans eventually gave up trying to get past the traps and burned the city from the outside. Some of their subjects joined us, but they were also extremely upset when we banned the practice of reanimation, most did not have monsterlings in protest for at least a century. A subset of necrotic monsters actually seem to actively dislike Asgore to this day, since they see the re-animation process as sacred. In particular Zhurg’s followers refuse, and some believe he will return again. While many necrotics have come to like Asgore, I am concerned they may try to rediscover their old ways if they stray far enough away from us.”

 

Everyone fell a bit silent.

 

“SO… UNDYNE IS FROM A COOL MAGIC ART KINGDOM. GRILLBY CAN PROBABLY TALK TO STARS… AND SANS AND I ARE FROM EITHER A CRAZY DISTURBING WARLORD OR AN INSANE PUZZLE BUILDING LABRYRINTH… AND OTHER SKELETONS THAT WE MEET MAY WANT TO BRING BACK THEIR TRADITION OF REANIMATING THE DEAD…”

 

“Oh, well, yes. But understand my dear, that this is mostly ancient history. Most skeletons today are much more relaxed. After all, dragon monsters used to only live in caves guarding treasure piles, wisps led travelers to their deaths, and don’t get me started on leech-monsters. It’s not about the past but the present.”

 

“so why do skeletons hate magic?” Sans still wanted to know.

 

“Well, most of Zhurg’s followers were banned from performing any magic themselves. He wanted them to be dependent on him… only basic physical fighting magic was generally accepted. Those who were more powerful, even his own offspring, tended to be turned to dust. More traditional necrotics probably still shun excessive magic slightly.”

 

Sans frowned, “skeletons are awful...” the small skeleton sunk into his chair.

 

“… Elementals… refused to talk… common language… until recently…” Grillby did not want Sans to hate his own kind.

 

“di-dino monsters- used-used to eat small monsters… like froggits. In-in- in ancient times.” Alphys hated the idea...

 

“humans can be really mean!” Frisk tried to help, too.

 

“And Taurus Monsters used to build labyrinths to hide in.” Toriel smiled.

 

“Fish monsters have always been perfect!” Undyne shouted. Toriel glared at her, but Sans laughed.

 

“E-enough of that! You-you want to hear about fun skeleton traditions?” Alphys pushed her glasses off and looked nervous, but excited.

 

“AS LONG AS THEY ARE SUPER COOL.”

 

“we-well I actually found a whole book on the cu-customs of skeletons and mummies. It-it was in the old city library. I found- found three dating cu-customs that we could try out.”

 

“…Sans went along with my customs… so I want to try a few skeleton things…” Grillby figured that after Sans had to fight with his parents it was only fair. He squeezed Sans shoulder. Alphys nodded and Undyne pumped her fist in the air.

 

“YEAH, let’s date like a skeleton!”

 

“we-well when it comes to dating there seem to be three big ones, one of which is a custom from Zhurg’s time, bu-but it is the most popular one.”

 

“what are the other two?”

 

“The fi-first seems like you’d have to m-modify it… you switch a bone with your partner for a day. It’s a si-sign of trust… if it pops out it’s a s-s-sign of ba-bad compatibility though.”

 

“…we could do it… I can light a candle or something and Sans can protect that from going out…” Grillby was determined to do this.

 

“huh, that would sure be…interesting. what’s the next one?” Sans would do it, but he was hoping for something else.

 

“The next one is for the partners to participate in a midnight bone rattling dance with their families.”

 

“a what dance?”

 

“a bone rattling dance. i as-assumed you migh-might know what that is?”

 

“NOPE!”

 

“we-well there’s a diagram in here with dance steps. so you could figure it out.” Papyrus and Frisk snatched the book from Alphys and immediately started trying to shake their arms in rattling motions.

 

“NEATO! AS YOUR FAMILY FRISK AND I WILL MASTER THE SKELETON DANCE AND PERFORM IT WITH GRILLBY AND SANS!”

 

“Hey me too!” Undyne wanted in.

 

“well, you guys are all my family, so whoever wants to do the skeleton dance thing can help out. that’s actually kind of fun sounding. what’s the last one?”

 

“Oh-ok, we-well this one is the one that everyone says you have to- have to- do that is based on Zhurg. Your parents bury you with your partner for a night and you emerge from the earth the next day… and try to emerge as close to dawn as possible. It symbolizes re-animation and un-undead life. The closer to dawn the better your relationship will be”

 

“… is there a way to do it…. without putting my flame out with dirt?....”

 

“I-I bet I can think of some-something.”

 

The monsters happily brainstormed and talked about old monster kingdoms for a bit. Grillby brought the apple tarts out, and watched in amazement as Undyne devoured half the plate.

 

“Sorry guys, I have no idea why I’ve been so hungry lately!” Undyne said as she munched on tart number four.

 

“Anyway, we will think of a way to get these to work for you two.” The group finished the apple tarts and relaxed.


	15. In which Undyne tries out a new snack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So Grillby and Sans get a little closer, and Undyne realizes something weird is going on...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woah things are starting to heat up with Sans and Grillby. Want to give Undyne and Alphys a bit of love too :D Update one of two... maybe three.

It was 10 O’Clock at night, Frisk had gone to bed a while back, and the monsters were reading over dance steps. Papyrus decided everyone needed a week to learn the cool skeleton dance before they would subject Grillby and Sans to the dating traditions, but it was fun to go over. Toriel scanned copies of the steps for everyone and handed them out.

As it was a partnered dance, Grillby and Sans would be dancing with each other, Papyrus and Frisk would team up, and of course Undyne and Alphys were together. Toriel would make sure Frisk did not get hurt.

“pretty sure we can skip the part that involves tossing our skulls around. i always hate doing that” Sans scanned through the steps.

“NONSENSE. We just gotta get extras from somewhere!” Undyne thought that was the coolest part of the dance…

“While I am all for getting a-head on the dance moves, I would prefer if we do not let Frisk throw a skull from something we find lying around.” Toriel was certainly not having that.

“I FEEL LIKE WE SHOULD STILL THROW SOMETHING.”

“Wh-what about something that represents a sk-skull instead? Li-Like something symbolic for each person?”

 

“OOH UNDYNE COULD TOSS HER HELMET.”

“uh-uhm that’s a bit dangerous f-for me to catch.”

“uh, i think the whole idea is that you swap heads with someone else… so how about people who can’t do that swap hats instead? like not helmet themed hats...”

“Hat throwing is a much more sensible suggestion, thank you Sans.” Toriel nodded her head in approval. Grillby was relieved he wouldn’t have to toss a fireball or something stupid, but he’d have to choose a hat carefully.

“OK BE BORING, you nerds. But Sans and Pap better do the cool head trick.”

Sans sighed.

“COME ON SANS ITS SUPER COOL.” Papyrus popped his skull off and tossed it in the air, before catching it back on his neck. Sans looked like he was having a flashback while Undyne cheered.

“SAN, YOU USED TO LOVE THIS TRICK!”

“fine, fine, I’ll do the head trick, but don’t drop my skull please. you always drop my skull.” Sans would not enjoy doing the head trick… but for Paps.

“oh-ok. It says here that there is a part where each pair takes a turn in the middle and does their own s-spooky and cha-charming dance improv. It suggests eye glowing, or more bone swapping, or rattling but I think each pair can figure something out.”

“Alphys and me are going to SCARE your pants off and be the skeleton dance champions!” Undyne bared her rows of sharp teeth while Alphys attempted to look scary by lowering her spiked head.

“NYEH HEH HEH, WELL FRISK AND I WILL BE THE MOST CHARMING SKELETONS.” Papyrus struck a muscle man pose, and everyone remembered that Frisk was the charm-master.

“…I think Sans and myself… will be the most charming… and spookiest…” Grillby dapperly straightened his bowtie and flared his flames, while Sans smiled and glowed an eye. With Grillby’s charisma and Sans creepy eye trick, they actually had a pretty good shot…

“Well, I promise to judge the dancing fairly!” Toriel seemed excited, “Let us give everyone a week to practice. We can also set up for the burying activity. I have to teach tomorrow though, so perhaps we can wrap it up for now?”

 

Everyone excitedly took the dance sheet, and Papyrus promised to come by to practice the dance with Frisk. Papyrus gave Alphys and Undyne a lift home, and Sans short-cutted to Grillby’s apartment.

 

***********************************************************

Sans hugged Grillby when they got back and Grillby pet his head.

“…So… do you like to… dance…Sans…?”

Sans chuckled,

“i’m not as good as my bro, but i can tango. i’m at least smooth enough not to step on your feet. at least not too many times. aside from the tango, i don’t dance much…”

Grillby tried to pick his jaw off the floor.

“…you can tango?...wh-why?...”

“paps needed help practicing when he was taking classes. i just followed his lead. how bout’ you?”

“ …Well…I am alright… no formal training… but I used to go dancing a lot at punk clubs in Hotland…”

Sans turn to have his jaw drop, his mouth actually opened a bit.

“you used to go clubbing!”

“…Yeah…mostly to raves…when I was in high school… I snuck out a few times… and then when I was older and working in restaurants… I would go out after work…”

Sans had expected Grillby to maybe do something more formal…like ballroom dancing.

“how do you go to raves in a suit and tie?”

“…well… you could… but you know Sans… I do own casual clothes…”

Sans wondered what Grillby’s idea of casual clothes was.

“so if i dress up for tango, will you dress down for rave dancing?” Sans wanted to see this. Grillby’s flame went up in shock.

“…I suppose… you would look so cute in a suit... can I help pick it out?...” Grillby blushed a bit. He figured Sans could use a little help picking something nice out.

“if i get to pick out the clubbing clothes.”

“…Sure, let me show you what I still have…if we want to be creative…we could do… some sort of combination dance?...”

“yeah, a combination of tango and rave would be tricky, but super cool, although we have to actually put effort into it if we wanna beat paps.”

“…So is Papyrus actually good at dancing?... or is it normal Sans praising Papyrus?...”

Sans suddenly looked a bit solemn.

“well, unfortunately for us, he’s pretty freaking talented. he’s a bit more-athletic- than me.” Sans looked down. Grillby still was not sure how Sans managed to look like he had a belly bulge when he was all bones…but Grillby thought he looked great. Sans continued,

“and paps can do most dance styles. frisk has natural talent, too, and if paps is doing choreography, they will tough to beat. thankfully, undyne just has blind enthusiasm, and alphys has two left feet.”

“…Although… Undyne… might give us some trouble with the ‘spook’ part of the equation…”

“well, if we can handle a fight with your folks, a dance battle should be no problem. so where’s this old rave outfit?”

Sans popped home and back with a few suits, and Grillby helped him pick out a nice tux with a blue bowtie, it looked like Sans hadn’t worn it in years, and it smelled like mothballs, but it was nice on Sans. Sans finished tying the bowtie and took a bow. Grillby thought he cut quite a nice figure.

Sans had Grillby change into his old rave outfit… which was a little tight, but still mostly fit. It was a leather-studded jacket, with a matching set of pants, that Sans tried not to stare at…it was hard there were spikes on the sides, and… the leather pants were also a bit tight... Grillby styled his flame hair into a fiery Mohawk- so badass. Sans picked out a t-shirt that had a skull on it from Grillby’s collection.

“hmm this isn’t a very accurate rendition.”

“…uhhhhh…”

“heh, just kiddin’. if i wear a shirt with cartoon fire on it i would hope it wouldn’t get you hot and bothered. apparently humans see skeletons as being cool since it reminds them of death? i don’t exactly understand humans.”

“…Hah…guess I’ve always…liked skeletons subconsciously…but I mean… skeletons are related to death...well not for me… that would be ashy dust… but for humans…”

“yeah. but imagine you were born one. to me its life. i’ve never been dead. and if you think i’m obsessed with it like those other skeletons you’ve made a grave mistake.” Sans did a pair of jazz hands.

“….HahahaHA….” Grillby’s face let out a magma bubble and the elemental immediately blushed.

“grillbabe did you just bubble?”

 

“..ugh… SOrry…I used a lOT of magic up earlier…this is one reason I hate using magic…if I use a lot of energy… have to revert to a more stable form…I get magma-ey…like dad…”

Grillby pouted as his usually smooth face shifted…his frown turning lopsided as part of it melted downwards.

“eh, not a big deal. Pretty cute actually.”

“…NoO…you are the cute one…I’m the strong devilish rOGue-like monster…”

“well, i can agree with strong…but i might be more the devilish rogue type.” Sans shortcutted behind Grillby and tickled his side.

“…hAa hAA HAA…” Grillby snorted a bit, and bubbled, eventually the volcanic outburst subsided. The fiery flame monster pulled Sans in for a bear hug onto his bed. The two shared a quick kiss and Grillby let his head fall onto his pillow, the fire Mohawk collapsed into loose flames around Sans’ skull. Grillby hadn’t realized how exhausted he was… he’d been overworking a lot lately.

“…Oh man… I am too tired to dance right now…”

“i think so, too.” Sans was always up for a cuddle in bed…

“…sleepover?...”

“yes, please.”

Sans shortcutted back to his room and slipped into his sweatpants and t-shirt again, and Grillby tried the new non-clashing shorts. The elemental still had the skull t-shirt on when Sans got back.

 

“…You know Sans… you might look good this t-shirt…. Plus… I have gained a few pounds since I last wore it, it barely fits me…can’t possibly sleep in it…” The shirt was pulled a little tightly on Grillby’s torso.

Sans blushed as Grillby tossed him the t-shirt, the elemental’s flaming chest, a bit more solid looking than usual…

 

Sans threw the shirt on top of the other one, and watched in dismay as it fell to his upper leg bone… why did Paps get all the tall genes?

 

“… you look great…” Grillby moved in to hold Sans. Sans touched his fingers gently to Grillby’s chest. Sans was used to Grillby’s torso going from solid to flames, but today it was a bit more… gooey? Sans stroked Grillby until one of his finger bones fell through the molten fire…

 

“…heh…what can I say… I’m in lava with you today…” Grillby pulled Sans in for another hug while the skeleton chuckled. Sans felt himself getting enveloped in a blanket of molten heat, not unbearable, but hotter than usual for Grillby. Sans pressed his teeth into grillby and let Grillby’s fiery tongue meet his. The two clung together, and Sans suddenly felt a bit more energetic…

“hey grillbz, this shirt is cute on me, but i think its too hot for this many layers.”

Before Grillby knew it, the shirts were off, and Sans was on top of him, freezing bones were pressing into his chest…

Sans blushed, and Grillby looked shyly. Sans grabbed Grillbys hand, and slowly placed it on his ribcage.

“heh, its ok, you can touch.”

Grillby shuddered. It was so cold… the flames at the tips of his fingers went out, leaving the magma core. Sans

Sans was really nice looking… Grillby had trouble staying concentrated in a humanoid form. Sans started to sink further into Grillby’s loose torso.

 

“…Hahaha… wow Sans this feels…so surreal…” Sans icy soul wasn’t quite touching… but it was close enough that Grillby actually felt his fire grow…chilled…like frost might actually form around his own blazing soul. He wished he had not used up so much magic earlier, his chest was starting to get patches of cooled magma on it… despite this his soul was still somehow trying to pull Sans in… Grillby was pretty sure his libido would be the death of him one day…

 

Sans moved his hands down what remained of Grillby’s sides, and held on…

Asgore, Sometimes Sans forgot how hot Grillby really was. Normally the elemental had a little more control than this, his body was bubbling, and flickering with little flames, hardening with magma patches... Sans felt like his fingers might melt… the one still hurt from getting covered in steel.

Still, he held on, and as he pressed his palm to Grillby it burned for a second, but then the crackling flaming sensations filled him with ecstasy and made his soul feel like it was dancing.   His icy heart started to glow a feint blue, and started to get pulled in towards Grillby’s now red heart.

 

“oh grilbz, grillbz this is so nice… grillbz. is this soul sharing?”

 

“…Woah..not quite… …although it is close… are you ready for that or… maybe we can stay at this level…”

Sans thought about it.

“yeah, just this is nice.”

“…Here… let’s keep it like this…” Grillby shifted his hips to lay on his side and hugged Sans into him so the were in more of a spooning position. Their soul’s still pounded with excitement, but the connection was not pulling them closer. Grillby stroked Sans’ shoulder blades.

“…is this ok…?”

“it feel great, and i love it.” Sans reached an arm bone up to stroke Grillby’s face.

“…you are so … beautiful… i love this...”

“speak for yourself, you crazy hot fire elemental”

The two definitely weren’t going to get any dancing practice in that night.

*********************************************************************

Papyrus barely batted an eye socket when Sans short cutted over to let him know he’d be staying at Grillby’s…again. He watched as his brother poofed out of existance over to Grillby’s apartment…wearing his sleep clothes… joy.

He really was happy his lazy brother had found someone, even if it meant less brother-bonding time. And Grillby definitely brought out the best in Sans. With Grillby sporadically visiting, Papyrus had noticed Sans making an effort to do the dishes and clean up messes… he even thought he saw Sans polish the table the last time Grillby was over for breakfast…

Still it had only been a few months… and the two were already starting to go into the annoying lovey dovey phase of the relationship! Papyrus had noticed Sans had started resting his skull on Grillby, and that the flame-monster would try to finish Sans puns…which was just awful. The worst was that the two had started booping the area where there noses would be, but since neither of them had noses it was just… a bit… sad and adorable at the same time. Papyrus was sure that when he entered a relationship he would do no such embarrassing thing. Papyrus had almost feinted when Alphys started calling Undyne “her sushi roll”. UGH

What would Papyrus even call someone? His little pasta noodle? Ok that was kind of cute, but still…NO. He had pride!

Alphys had let Papyrus borrow the book on Mummies and Skeletons, and Papyrus had at least another 4 hours before he would sleep.

********************************************************************

Undyne normally slept with Alphys, but tonight she retreated into the newly installed pool outside that Alphys had generously helped pay for... complete with a deep end. She had tried snuggling with Alphys on their big comfy couch, but just could not get comfortable tonight! The house had just been feeling like the hot stuffy nightmare lately. Back in waterfall, she would sometimes let herself sink to the bottom of the river, and swim in place to drift off to sleep.

Alphs of course would not be separated from her tsundere-fish,

“We-well, I’m going to camp outside with you tonight!”

Alphys had grown fond of sleeping with Undyne. She couldn’t exactly curl up with her at the bottom of the swimming pool, but she could at least be nearby in her Pikachu sleeping bag, the yellow electric cover matching her scales.

The two brushed their teeth before bed, Alphys kissing Undyne while she tried to floss her particularly long fangs.

Undyne threw her shirt off, and before she could lotion up her scales, Alphys grabbed her hand.

“he-hey Undyne, do you change color with the seasons?”

“What? No, I am blue-abadee abadie!” Undyne danced around for a second.

“we-well some of your scales are turning black.”

Undyne looked at the scales near her stomach…she was blue, with a few red patches on her belly…but there near the stomach and moving all the way up her chest some of her scales were turning black…

“HOLY CRAP! you’re right Alphys!”

 

“A-are you sick? Do-do you think something you a-ate? You ate a l-lot.”

 

“hmm no… I bet it just means I’m getting older or something… I’ll give my parents a call and ask later.”

 

Undyne and Alphys went outside to camp, Alphys brought her 3-DS and a flashlight. Undyne tried to float to the bottom of the pool, but she just couldn’t feel comfortable…

 

She got out of the pool and grabbed a large rock, before chucking it-only for the rock to split in two. As usual-the splash went farther than she expected, but thankfully did not hit her adorable snuggled up girlfriend.

 

“uh-Undyne, why did you chuck a boulder into the pool?”

 

“I just need a few rocks to get comfortable…its more natural. Really I should get some gravel and water plants now that its summer…” Undyne did not know why she hadn’t done this earlier.

 

“it-it could be your own little aquarium, love”

 

“YEAH! with lots of boulders to suplex! And a cute dino-monster lady with me.”

Undyne hopped out of the pool to give Alphys a kiss before diving in and circling the rock. Both Undyne and Alphys eventually drifted off to sleep.

 

*************************************************************************

Undyne woke up feeling even more overheated the next morning, but she supposed it would feel worse if she had stayed in the house. Aside from the heat, she felt normal, so she went to school to coach, while Alphys went to the lab.

Maybe the pool would be nicer if it had a better filter in it? Undyne got out of work a bit early, so she headed to the local pet store, and then the garden store…

By the time Alphys got home Undyne was doing laps around the pool in her birthday suit. It was good they had a fenced in yard. In the front shallow section, there was now a patch of gravel at the bottom, and a few water hyacinths and lilies that wouldn’t bloom for a bit, but the still looked nice. There was also a patch with a bunch of bubbles coming up- to aerate the water, although Alphys suspected it felt nice, too. The giant rock was still at the bottom, now joined with a few smaller, less cracked rock friends.

Alphys blushed and slipped off her clothes before doing a canon ball into the deep end. She honestly was not the best at swimming but Undyne had been giving her lessons. The dinosaur did her best to swim seductively up to Undyne

“he-hey my lovely shark. I like what you have done with the pool, especially the decorations.”

 

“HEY Alphys! Looking cute! Sweet Cannonball too! It just feels right, you know. I think I might be sleeping outside. I called my dad and he said his scales changed color when he was younger and he got too overheated… he says the can change back if you cool off…”

 

“well, that’s a relief. I’m glad you aren’t sick Undyne. I’ll camp out with you for a few more nights until you feel a bit better.”

 

The two played around in the pool for a few hours. Alphys loved how their lights at the bottom of the pool lit up at night. They could be adjusted, though so Undyne would be able to sleep peacefully. Alphys eventually retracted to her sleeping bag, with a pair of warm fuzzy pink pajamas, this time grabbing a few extra pillows and a nightlight with her new manga series. As the moon rose Undyne sunk to the bottom of the pool.

Alphys was getting really into the story, the protagonist was finally going to confront the demon lord who was plaguing their lands… there were two volumes left…. Maybe she could start the next one. She’d go to bed after one AM at the latest, and it was still only 11:00…

“ _You dare to challenge me… you should join me instead...”_

_“I will never let you continue your reign of terror! Taste my fire magic Margarl!”_

_“Didn’t you ever wonder why you had fire magic in the first place? Did your mother ever tell you-”_

CRUNCH.

Alphys looked up. A crunching noise was coming from the pool. Undyne was probably sleep-punching things again…

“ _Did your mother ever tell you who your real father was?”_

_“NO! But I am sure my father would want to end your reign of tranny!”_

CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH. Alphys brought her night-light to the pool. Undyne was asleep, and unconsciously swimming in circles around some water plants Alphys hadn’t noticed at the bottom before. And she was… chewing on gravel and spitting it out?

Maybe it had to do with the heat? Alphys, decided to ask Undyne about it in the morning. Still, Alphs had never heard of cooling off by chewing on small rocks…

Undyne’s birthday was tomorrow, and Alphys hoped she’d feel better by then.

********************************

“Happy birthday love!”

“Ugh thanks babe. Does not feel like a birthday with the headache I am sporting.”

“well- ma-maybe that’s because- you-you were eating rocks last night…”

Undyne’s looked confused.

“That’s ridiculous, I think I’d know if I had a stomach full of rocks.”

“well, you-you were spitting them out after you chewed them.”

“Look, that is NASTY. Besides, if I was chewing rocks, I’d have it stuck in my teeth.” Undyne opened her mouth wide and looked into the mirror. There was, in fact, what looked like sediment stuck between several of her teeth.

“Well, um, I guess I’m just so strong, that my mouth needs a workout, too.” Undyne flexed her arms, but looked a bit concerned.

“Ugh, anyway I better brush up, and get dressed, the gangs coming over around noon for some dogs and swimming right?”

Alphys nodded. “Sa-Sans offered to bring the hot dog cart, should be de-delicious!” Alphys had woken up early, herself, to try to bake a cake. It was a vanilla cake with blueberry icing and some of Undyne’s favorite fish food sprinkled on. Not everyone liked fish food, but since it was Undyne’s birthday Alphys figured they would deal.


	16. In which Grillby has to wear a rainhat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At Undyne's birthday party, she discovers something unexpected...

Papyrus arrived at noon exactly, with Doggo riding shotgun, and Sans, Lesser Dog, and Grillby in the backseat. Everyone was wearing a swimsuit, except Grillby who was wearing a raincoat with a plastic poncho over it, wellington boots, and a pink rain hat. Grillby had tried to tell Sans that the raincoat would be enough, but Sans insisted on giving him Papyrus’s old hat and boots and his poncho. Now the elemental squeaked every time he moved his arms, and his fire hair was spilling onto his face…

  
Papyrus had a pair of Orange swim trunks, and Sans had some plain blue ones and a matching blue swim shirt. Lesser dog had a suit with little bones on it, and Doggo, of course, was sporting a black speedo.

  
Sans set up the hot dog cart near the patio, and Grillby found the chair farthest away from the pool and glanced nervously as Papyrus and Doggo leapt into the liquid container of death. Water splashed in all directions as Lesser Dog belly flopped in.

  
At the sound of the splashing, Sans grabbed an umbrella from the hot dog cart and used his magic to open it and hold it over Grillby’s head. Grillby seemed embarrassed, but changed his tune to appreciation, as Undyne hurled herself into the deep end, letting water rocket dangerously close.

“UNDYNE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AND NICE TAN! IT IS SPRING AND YOU ALREADY HAVE ONE!”

“Heh, yeah, it is awesome right!”

“YEAH, IT’S TIME FOR ME TO START WORKING ON MY BEACH BODY.”

  
Both Grillby and Doggo wondered how Papyrus could possibly work on his beach body, being made of bones, but kept quiet.  
“Yeah! You can’t stop me from working out! Apparently I’ve been working out breaking rocks in my sleep!”

  
“That’s our Captain! Never resting, always working, woof!” Doggo hi-fived Undyne.

  
“Let’s work up an appetite then!”

  
The group complimented Undyne on the “natural lake decorations” and decided to play chicken, with Doggo and Lesser Dog forming a team against Undyne and Alphys. Papyrus called Sans over, and Grillby shoed him in. Just because Grillby couldn’t jump in did not mean Sans couldn’t have fun. Besides Grillby would cook these dogs to perfection....

  
The pool had a deep end, a mid section, where they could set up a net, and then a shallow section, which included Undyne’s patch of plants.  
Grillby watched Undyne and Alphys topple Sans into the water by tickling Papyrus. Sans laughed, and then Papyrus tickled him, while the fierce battle between Doggo and Undyne for water dominance raged on. Eventually, Lesser Dog got distracted by a bird, and Undyne took the opportunity to claim victory. The group moved on to water volleyball after a few minutes, a bright blue inflated ball passing between the teams.

  
Grillby soon noted that Lesser Dog was pretty bad at water volleyball, he kept trying to catch the ball, and hold it instead of hit it. Sans wasn’t that great either, but his magic was pretty helpful at grabbing the ball when it went out of bounds… Grillby noticed that his boyfriend was still hovering the umbrella over his head while playing…impressive, but the small skeleton probably would play better if he was less distracted.

  
Papyrus and Doggo teamed up with Lesser Dog, and they were honestly getting their butts handed to them by Undyne, Sans, and Alphys. “WATCH out NERDS!” Alphys and Sans set Undyne up for a spike, which splashed past Doggo and Papyrus.  
The spike was so powerful that it floated past the players into the little plant zone. Before Sans could magic it in- Sans was distracted watching Grillby flip the dogs-Papyrus went to retrieve it, taking a step into the lily pads… FWOOSH

  
“OWIE UNDYNE! I DO NOT WANT TO WRESTLE FOR THE BALL.” Undyne had dove into the water and propelled herself into Papyrus... and bit his arm? Sans eye glowed blue...

“Heh, sorry Paps, I don’t know what the heck just cam over me… I guess I just don’t want anyone near the plants… if the ball goes in here, let me get it ok?”

The game resumed, and the next couple of times the ball landed in the water garden, Undyne jetted over and retrieved it. Grillby had no idea Undyne could move that fast…

The fourth time the ball went into the plants (Undyne, Sans, and Alphys were winning 12-3) Undyne shot over so fast she got herself stuck in a lily stem…she started to thrash about.

“UNDYNE LET ME HELP YOU OUT. “ Papyrus, recalling his lifeguard abilities, carefully waded up to Undyne and gently untangled her.

“ONE TIME A KID SWAM INTO ONE OF THE LANES IN THE POOL AND GOT TANGLED, AND I HAD TO HELP THEM OUT.”  
Papyrus lifted Undyne up and fished her out of the plant.  
“Thanks Paps, but no dumb plant can defeat Undyne!”  
“HEY UNDYNE WHAT TYPE OF ROCK IS THAT AT THE BOTTOM THERE?” The plant had what appeared to be an orange orb stuck to it.

“Oh I threw a boulder in the other day…” Undyne did not even glance down, as she was trying to brush her hair back, and look badass again.

“A GLOWY ORANGE BOULDER! ORANGE IS MY FAVORITE COLOR, WHERE DID YOU FIND A ROCK LIKE THAT?”

“I don’t think it’s orange. You should really get glasses Papyrus, we’ve been over this”

“ I DO NOT WANT TO WEAR GLASSES I DON’T EVEN HAVE EYES.”

“well, grillbz wears glasses bro, and he doesn’t technically even have regular eyes, so…”  
“OK OK, I WILL SEE AN OPTOMETRIST. BUT THE ROCK IS DEFINITELY GLOWY ORANGE- SEE IT IS STICKING TO THE PLANT.” Papyrus moved the plant up out of the water, and a bright orange ball was stuck to it… it wasn’t a rock.

“Oh my Asgore- is that- Papyrus, put that back in the water immediately!” Papyrus quickly dropped the plant. Undyne dove under the water and started swimming in circles…darting under the plants. She eventually pulled four plants into the center of her water garden.

“IS IT A SPECIAL ROCK?” Undyne looked past Papyrus, and avoided his question,

  
“Wow all that swimming sure made me hungry.” Undyne looked super feint all of the sudden, her face turning a pale blue.

  
“Hey Grillby! You land loving monster you, how’s the food?”

  
“… Should be ready in a minute or two… why don’t you come eat…?”

  
Doggo and Lesser Dog jumped out of the pool ready to chow down. Sans short cutted close to Grillby who steamed the water off him before letting him come in for a hug. Papyrus and waded out, careful to stay away from the plants, and staring suspiciously at Undyne who was still circling the area. Alphys swam up to Undyne and helped her out of the pool.

Everyone enjoyed the Hot Cats, cheeseburgers, and mushroom burgers that Grillby had cooked up. Grillby finally got Sans to drop the umbrella, and the guests went to Papyrus’s car to grab Undyne her presents.

  
Undyne loved the teakettle and ice-cube tray, and the weight set from Sans and Grillby. Doggo had gotten her a manga series, and Lesser Dog made her a mix-CD. Undyne seemed to like the presents, but she seemed really feint. She kept running to the pool and jumping in, claiming Grillby was cooking her and she needed to get wet. Grillby tried to lower his flames a bit, but the hot sun made it hard for him to keep his heat down. Sans remembered the time Undyne had dried up in Hotland…

  
Undyne continued to turn paler and paler… and when Alphys went in to get the cake, the other were hoping she might sit down for a minute.

  
“U-Um Undyne… is Grillby really causing you to dry out…you look really ill…and why did you b-bite Papyrus… m-maybe you are sick after all?”

  
“Alphys- I think- I think those um rocks aren’t rocks…” Undyne looked a bit panicked.

“oh-oh yeah I was a little far away and the sun was shining down at me-that actually looked like…oh-oh my…” Alphys suddenly realized what the rocks were.

  
Undyne and Alphys checked their dating stats. Under the population graph, four little eggs shook to the beat of the DATING HUD music.  
“So, there are Monster eggs… four monster eggs... Two orange, one green, and one yellow…”

“Four-four…MON-MONSTER EGGS? Oh- oh oh my U-U-U-Undyne…”

“Alphys…I think I know why I am turning black and chewing gravel…”

“A-actually, while I know a bit about Biology why are you doing th-that.”

  
“SO, some species of Fish monsters, when it gets warmer out, are more likely to go into a breeding state, Um, but my parents always told me it was more towards the hottest part of the summer, but that they had me at a weird time…because of some explosion at the core…so …I’ve never gone into it before so maybe I’m different because of that…wait, when do Dino Monsters have eggs?”

  
“o-oh well, we tend to have them during the w-wi-winter, it’s a long incubation, so the hatch in spring. Oh my Asgore, that means our shared season… late for me, but early for you is…spring.” The people at the Monster clinic had told them they would have to be careful to avoid soul sex during their breeding seasons, but the two hadn’t been careful during spring at all… I mean just last night…

  
“Oh, right, I think I know why I went a bit crazy… Fish monsters build a nest with plants and gravel, and you chew the gravel into something closer to sand to cushion and bury the eggs a bit. Then you circle the eggs to make sure nothing happens to them, which is probably why I feel really angry whenever someone that isn’t you go near them…”

  
“so-so you were protecting the eggs from Papyrus…”

  
“well, I mean, I think its just instinct. I don’t think Paps would hurt a fly, but its just this overwhelming feeling of…a need to protect them.”

  
“Did you-you realize the eggs were there this morning?”

  
“I, um, must have in my sleep…”

  
“u-umm,”

  
“Look! Some Monsters sleep walk, apparently I can lay eggs!”

  
Alphys suddenly stopped.

  
“U-Undyne, does this mean we are going to be parents?”

“If you want to be right now? I-I’m ok with this…. And I am a bit attached” Undyne looked nervously at Alphys…

“Ye-yeah it’s a little unexpected, but I I always wanted to have a nest with you someday.”

  
The two hugged. Undyne started to sob big happy tears of joy. Alphys was beaming. The doctors had given them a pretty high chance of having monsterlings but it was still a relief.

  
“Wow, just, WOW, I am feeling so many emotions right now.”

  
“Do-do you want to-to tell the others?”

  
“YEAH! Lets tell them!”

******************************************************  
The two went outside, Alphys had the cake, and was beaming, while Undyne was smiling and sobbing.

  
“hey undyne, we couldn’t help but notice, are you feeling ok?” Sans tiptoed the thought into the conversation…

  
Undyne noticed Grillby had backed far away from her, and that Sans and Papyrus had put some icy blue bones around the table to try to cool the area off…

  
“Grillby, you don’t have to go away, you aren’t drying me out, I’m sorry, it was a white lie…and … and I feel very healthy, just a bit shocked…” Undyne smiled, but she was still crying with joy, which the others noticed.

  
“SHOCKED! UNDYNE I AM SO SORRY FOR PULLING OUT YOUR WEIRD ROCK PLEASE DO NOT BE UPSET WITH ME!” Papyrus had seen Undyne cry before, but it was a long time ago…

  
“No, Paps…its not a weird rock… and I’m honestly just really happy…um, we were just surprised to find out that…” Undyne looked at Alphys.  
“We are going to be moms!”

  
“THAT’s rights, apparently those are eggs!”

  
Papyrus jumped up and cheered. Sans and Grillby let their mouths open in shock. Doggo jumped up, and Lesser Dog immediately jumped into Undyne and Alphys for a hug. The others nuzzled around for a giant group hug, although Grillby was a bit tentative hugging Undyne, who pulled him in or a bear hug anyway and apologized. Her scales did dry up a bit though.

Undyne carefully moved the eggs to the very shallow part of the pool, so everyone could see.  
There were two orange eggs, with thick jelly coats that seemed to glow, a green one, more hard and shiny, maybe pearl-like, and a yellow one, that still had a thin jelly coat, that seemed to sparkle in the sun.

  
Alphys touched her hand to each one, and they glowed more brightly as she did so. She paused at the last orange one which was the biggest, but also the dullest…

  
“you-you guys can say hi if if you want, right Un-Undyne.”

  
Undyne nodded,

  
“BUT I want to put them back into the shade in minute.”

  
Grillby declined… as sweet as Undne’s hug was, if he cooked one of her offspring he would never forgive himself. Doggo also stayed back, happy to just watch. Lesser Dog and Papyrus happily gently touched an orange egg, and Sans carefully touched the green one. Wow… a warm sense of happy magic radiated from them… Sans couldn’t help but smile at the new magical energy.

  
Alphys waded into the pool with Undyne and carefully carried a Green and Orange egg to place them back under the plants, while Undyne grabbed the other two.

  
“undyne, alphys, really thanks for telling us.” Sans was getting teary eyed himself.

  
Honestly, the recent baby boom of monsters was only in part due to the excitement of coming to the surface. Living underground… wasn’t exactly ideal for a lot of monster types… Monsters like Undyne, preferred conditions that were a bit more sunny. Lots of monsters had trouble having offspring underground. So, this was pretty special for everyone.

  
“Sans, you big softie…You guys are like family to us, so we wanted to share this with you.”

  
Papyrus was also getting a bit teary eyed.

  
“So, are you gonna name the pups?”

  
Undyne looked excited,

  
“HELL YEAH! The yellow one can be Alphys junior and the orange one-”

  
“OOH MIGHT I RECOMMEND PAPYRUS… IT IS THE GREATEST NAME…”

  
“ooh how about Rover? Or Chipper? Those are some of my favorites?”

  
“…Uh…Solaris…?”

  
“the green one kindof looks like a jim.”

  
“uh-uh maybe let’s wait a bit…” Alphys looked a bit serious.

  
“Huh?”

  
“we-well you know how eggs are.”

  
“OH,” Undyne frowned. “Right, hold off a week guys.”

  
Lesser Dog looked confused.

  
“w-well I was the only egg to survive my mothers brood…”

  
“Yeah, me and my brother were the only fry out of ten…”

  
The two looked nervously at each other.

  
Papyrus put a hand on Undyne’s shoulder.

  
“WELL WHATEVER HAPPENS PAPYRUS IS HERE TO HELP.”

  
“me too.”

  
“and me, WOOF!”

  
“…I’m here for you…”

  
Lesser Dog let out a Bark.  
************************************************************************  
“we-well we need to call our families, this was a bit unexpected- an-and the eggs might develop very quickly, so we might need some help.”

  
In the next ten minutes Alphys and Undyne took turns calling their families…

  
“uh-uhm Sans I hate to ask, but do you think you could help get my mom and dad over? Undne’s family are on their way… but mine live pretty far out.

  
“not a prob, bob. do they still live Underground in the city?”

  
“y-yeah”

  
Alphys called her dad back to let them know Sans would be over in a second, and the doorbell heard on the other end of the phone line indicated that was true…”

  
In less than a minute Sans was back with a very gruff looking green dinosaur lady, and a bespeckled Orange Dinosaur man.

  
“GRAAH…OH, ALPHIES MY LITTLE SWEETIE I DIDN’T THINK YOU’D BE A MOMMA SO SOON. WHERE’S YOUR CLUTCH?” Alphys mother roared, hugging her little girl and Undyne with her tiny arms…She towered over both.

  
Alphys pointed to the pool.

  
“HMM…WE-WELL… I was going to suggest keeping them somewhere dry…but… “ Alphys’ smaller orange father poked his facial horn into the water… peering in to see the eggs.

  
“U-Undyne’s family should be here in-in a minute, and if they think its ok to move the eggs, we will bring them up front. In-in the meantime let me introduce you…” Alphys seemed so happy.

  
“Ev-Everyone this is my mother Carvata” As Alphys explained Carvata smiled, her massive teeth and two tiny horns near her eyes sparkling in the light… Sans did not know too many dinosaurs, but she looked like some sort of horned t-rex.

  
“and my father Alphonse.” Alphonse looked a bit more like Alphys, except that he had three more distinct horns, was a bit shorter, and was orange. He also had red markings around his eyes and glasses.

  
Undyne’s family lived pretty close by, and a veering car skidding into the grass of the front lawn signified their arrival.  
“Caspian grab the H-C-L and the N-A-O-H Quick!”

  
A blue fish monster, who looked identical to Undyne, except that he had fins instead of hair. In a manner similar to Undyne, he rushed past everyone and jumped into the pool with what looked like a thermometer. He waited a few seconds and nodded his head before wading out

  
“Sorry Undyne sweetie, I just want to make sure the temperature is ok, these guys need to be kept warm! Our first clutch… well it was a bit cold in waterfall….” The fishman paused for a second.

  
“But congrats tiger!” Undyne’s father jumped out of the pool to give Undyne a soaking hug, which she returned.

  
A green fish woman with long braided hair like Undyne came carrying a white electronic box, with a long extension cable. She wore a long flowing white beach dress, and had shells braided into her hair. Two other fish monsters were there, too, a purplish tubby fish who had red fins on his head, and to everyone’s surprise Ugly.

  
“Hey everyone meet my Dad Urdyne, my Mom Cordelia, My brother Coral, and my cousin Caspian.”

  
Sans, Doggo, and Grillby locked eyes with Ugly, who put a hand to his face…he had never told them his real name…it didn’t really fit.  
“CORDELIA IT IS WONDERFUL TO SEE YOU AGAIN GRAAH!” Alphys mother and Cordelia exchanged a quick cheek kiss.

  
“It is most wonderful to see you too, Carvata.” Cordelia spoke very elegantly; her soft voice was like a crooning song.

  
“Congratulations sister dearest…” Coral very elegantly gave his sister two cheek kisses. Sans got a Mettaton vibe from him…

  
“Now, I must insist, we check the pH immediately, my second clutch was completely wiped out when the pH went too acidic…” Cordelia looked somber, and Urdyne gave her a hug. Coral ran to plug the extension cord into Undyne and Alphys kitchen, and Ugly walked up to the pool with the NAOH (Sodium Hydroxide) and HCl (Hydrochloric acid) and a bucket of…red dye.

  
Ugly…er Caspian, carefully stuck the pH indicator into the pool and waited patiently for it to calibrate.

  
“Ok, buds, so the pool is water and plants, so it should be naturally around pH 7.0, but the eggs prefer 7.4 to 7.6, with 7.5 being ideal.” Everyone watched, the little device with bated breath…which Ugly noticed with a sigh.

  
“Buds, look…It’s going to take me an hour to test the different spots on the pool, but I have a quick solution to make sure the pH is not too awful… This is phenol red, it changes color depending on the pH. Bright pink is too basic, yellow is too acidic, we want a nice peach color, a pale orange at worst or light pink would be ok, but anything worse than that and I will immediately add some acid or base…”

  
“IS that stuff safe for the eggs?” Undyne glared at the vat of red dye.

  
“Scientists use it to grow hundreds of frog tadpoles everyday, it should be fine cousin, but I wont add it if you don’t want to…”

  
“We-we’ve used that before, not to grow eggs, but I know it isn’t toxic…” Alphys at least had seen the stuff.

“Also what was the temperature, Uncle?”

  
“24oC”

  
“That is a little low honey… These prefer 26 to 28…we should heat the pool before adjusting the pH…” Cordelia crooned, before grabbing Grillby by his raincoat covered arm,

“Grillby, was it? Would you be a dear, and try to heat the pool, if you start at the deep end, it would be safest…”

Grillby nervously walked up to the pool’s deep end and knelt over it holding his hands as close to the water as he dared…Cordelia, followed, and watched carefully. Grillby heated the water from a distance.. it only had to be a couple of degrees… Grillby concentrated his energy into his hands, which glowed blue, and then for a few seconds white… He moved them right to the surface… and let out a pulse of heat energy… before removing them slowly.

“What’s it at hon?” Cordelia shouted out to Urdyne, but Grillby knew it should be 27oC exactly…

“27.5!” Grillby frowned… the thermometer was obviously broken.

The temperature was now perfect, but it would be best if they got a pool heater… Grillby wasn’t going to be available to keep the water at the specific temperature all night. Papyrus drove Doggo and Lesser Dog to pick out one or two, Alphys would pay them back later, and they were happy to be helpful since they had to admit they didn’t know much about monster eggs.

  
Grillby and Sans retreated to the kitchen to make dinner. The pair got joking about having a clutch of eggs themselves. This gave Undyne and Alphys some time with just the family.

  
Coral poured the pH indicator into the far side of the pool, and swam around carefully to mix it. Undyne swam around the plant area though. The waves of red spread out as Ugly went around and took notes on the water’s pH. It was a little creepy, watching the waves of red washed in over her clutch…but the water eventually mixed into a calm pale orange. Undyne let out a sigh of relief.

“OK, so the eggs should be fine, but as expected, we need to bring the pH up just a little bit”

  
Ugly and Alphys did some calculations and added a few quarts of 10 N HCL to the pool, adding them far away from the eggs… after ten minutes of swim-mixing, the water turned a beautiful peach.

  
“The other thing you should do is move your nest to the shallow area… Alphys can help you with it, more easily, and they will stay warmer during the day. At night, move them back to the original site.” Urdyne patted Undyne on the shoulder.

  
“We are so proud of you two, and try not to worry… I know we are freaking you out a bit, but the surface is a much better environment for egg laying. We’ve only had so much trouble because the water down there is just cold… and awful.”  
Undyne brought the four shining eggs to the front of the pool.

  
“GRAAAH, CONGRATS YOU TWO… OH I REMEMBER WHEN YOU WERE JUST AN EGG YOURSELF…TIME FLIES…” Carvata bowed her head to wipe a tear from her eye.

  
“This-This one looks kind of more like a DINOSAUR EGG!…” Alphonse brushed the green egg forward with his tail… It was true that it had a different type of coat, shiny and sparkly and much less of a jelly coat. It wasn’t quite leathery, but it looked a little tougher and less aquatic.

  
“That one… has much less protection… you need to keep it the warmest dearies…” Cordelia moved it so that only a thin layer of water covered the top, letting the sunshine over it. Urdyne moved some lily pads over the others.

  
“The yellow egg sure looks glowy! I was such a sickly egg… but this guy, this guy is gonna be a handsome one.” Ugly smiled at the yellow egg.

  
“Heh, this little orange one is just like Undyne’s egg was…maybe she cloned herself” Urdyne pointed at the smaller of the orange eggs.

  
“The other orange one is huge in comparison.” Coral noticed there was something odd about it.

  
“I-I remember Alphys egg was such a huge one… never seen a big one like that before…look at her now, such a big strong dino-monster!” Alphonse smiled.

  
“Oh, it is huge, may I touch is Undyne, Alphys?” Undyne nodded, Alphys looked worried. Cordelia sighed.

“I-I sensed it earlier. I-It doesn’t have strong m-magic…is it ok? Was-was the pH too bad for it?” Alphys looked upset.

Cordelia shook her head, “ No, No dear Undyne, Alphys, don’t be too upset, but I don’t think this is fertilized… it’s a dud… I can tell because it isn’t tightening within the jelly coat… its too big and jiggly still… It was never alive…any residual magic was just from Undyne… Monster fish always lay at lead to one dud egg, its to protect against predators…”

  
Undyne and Alphys still looked upset.

  
Cordelia, picked the other orange egg out of the water. Undyne looked more upset.

  
“Relax you two, the reason they have the coat is so they don’t dry out, I want to show you its alive and strong….look through the coating.”

  
Inside was an inner egg, orange, and it had divided in half…”

  
“It looks like a butt!” Ugly unhelpfully chimed in.

“It has cleaved for the first time, meaning it is alive and well… the darker part will turn into the monster and the lighter part is its yolk sac. Within a day you will see the little monster form… they look like eels. After gastrulation and elongation…I have a chart…I will send it to you… they take shape to a more monster-like form. The whole processes of hatching usually only takes a week for fish monsters, but since these are part dino monster…”

  
“GRAHH, IT COULD TAKE A MONTH.” Dang, that was still pretty quick…

  
The large orange one, felt less solid, and Alphys noticed a white patch had formed on it…cell death had begun… Urdyne gently took it for her, and buried it in the garden behind the pool for them. It had never been alive but it was still a little sad.

  
Cordelia, Undyne, and Alphys carefully looked at the other eggs. The yellow egg had already cleaved a second time…it was divided in four separate parts, the top two a dark yellow, the bottom two a yellow white.

  
“That one is developing quickly, it will probably hatch first!”

  
The green egg was a bit harder to see, but there was definitely something inside it. Undyne and Alphys sighed with relief.

  
Undyne and Alphys smiled. Undyne laid the eggs back down, and curled around them in the water. Alphys waded next to the green egg and curled her tail around it.

  
“GRAAH WITH A TOUGH MATE LIKE UNDYNE THESE ARE GOING TO BE SOME MIGHTY DINOSAURS!” Carvata had always wanted Alphys to be a bit more outgoing…

“Haha, Carvata dearest, they might be fish monsters too, but with such a smart mother like your Alphys, these will we some clever little fry.” Of course, Cordelia had always wished her only daughter had been a bit more refined…

  
Undyne and Alphys family had a friendly argument on whether the monsters would be dinosaur-like or fish-like. Papyrus and the dogs came back with some heaters, and as the sun started to sink, everyone, enjoyed a lovely poolside meal- steak, salad, mashed potatoes, and bloodworm soup, something for everyone. They enjoyed Alphy's cake finally for dessert.

  
Eventually, Papyrus got tired, and decided it was time to drive everyone home. Grillby decided to stay with Sans for a change, and Undyne’s family made sure she knew how to use the pH meter a good three times before they headed out, taking Alphys parents home.

  
Undyne and Alphys were left with little butterflies in their souls…Alphys, who had been taking a turn gently covering the eggs in the shallow water, moved off. They moved the eggs back to the deep end, and Undyne started circling them for the night. The two talked for hour… they were going to be parents… in month… and while the eggs were healthy, snuggled in perfectly pH’ed water, at the correct temperature, with little gravel and plant nests, the two could not help but fret a little bit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who spent most of last weekend reading about piranha breeding habits? The pH stuff is based on work I've done in my old developmental lab... and the jelly coats and embryo divisions are really cool. I hope people are okay with a little bit of Alphys and Undyne, I feel like they get neglected sometimes :D We'll see how Sans and Grillby help these two out with their clutch more in a bit. This story will primarily be Sans and Grillby, but every once in a while I'd like to focus on their friends


	17. Practice Dance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grillby and Sans have a stressful week, but find the time to practice dancing. In other news Red had an awful week...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for the very nice comments after lat chapter! This one is kindof sweet. Poor Grillby- being a bartender comes with a lot of garbage...

Doggo and Lesser Dog were pretty tired from running around all day, but were super excited for the “pups” as Doggo kept calling them. Doggo lit up another dog treat as Papyrus drove them home. Papyrus hated smoking in the car, but considering Grillby was in the vehicle… it seemed silly to disallow it.

“My cousin Dogalyssa just had some pups with her Boyfriend Chomper. I love puppies, they are moving constantly…” Doggo blew out a puff of smoke from his minty flavored dog treat.

“Bark! Woof-woo-woo-woo-WOOF!” Lesser Dog explained that he was the most energetic puppy in his litter, and how his dad used to have to help relax him so his neck wouldn’t always extend to the ceiling.

“Yeah, well pal, I was apparently a very lazy puppy.” Doggo took a deep pull from his dogtreat, and puffed it towards LD.

“i bet i was lazier.” Sans leaned into Grillby and closed his eyes… he might actually go to sleep if everyone let him…cars made him super tired.

However, it was true that Doggo was one of the few monsters that could give Sans a run for his money. Grillby had seen Doggo…relaxing… at his station a few times. The mangy mutt also had a tab longer than Sans’ had been Underground. In addition, Doggo was one of the few regulars that would try to prank Grillby. If that dog threw “aromatic spices” into Grillby one more time…

“APPARENTLY I WAS SUPER QUIET AS A BABYBONES. THANKFULLY SANS HELPED ME OVERCOME MY SHY DEMEANOR SO I COULD BE THE GREAT CONFIDENT SKELETON I AM TODAY.”

“Woof, imagining you as quiet is pretty tall order…”

“it’s true… he used to be quieter than me… come on paps show em your quiet voice.”

“WELL,” Papyrus paused for dramatic effect, “…if you insist dear brother. But I’ve been told my voice can be a bit chilling…” Paps eyes glowed a haunting orange and the car doors gathered a slight layer of frost. A few hairs went up on Doggo’s neck. Grillby could honestly say he preferred loud happy obnoxious Papyrus any day…

“OK, so you talk loud so you don’t ice us, woof?”

“NO, I JUST WANTED TO BE DRAMATIC. I CAN ICE YOU WHENEVER.” Grillby was glad Papyrus approved of his and Sans relationship.

“…so… can you do that Sans….?”

“nope. best i can manage is a slight temperature drop, or a cold blue attack. papyrus can do a few things i can’t.”

“I’D RATHER HAVE SHORTCUTS THAN USELESS FROST OR GIANT BONES. OR EVEN THE ABILITY TO READ CHA-”

“well, i’d rather be another foot taller… but yeah, small differences in abilities. technically pap’s blue attack is more of a push and mine is a pull, but in practicality we can both move things around…” Sans cut Papyrus off.

“Ugh, my blue attack only summons stupid knives…but Snowdrake’s been teaching me his parabolic wave, so that’s allright, woof. My parents always wanted me to learn the dog special attack, but I never could, like I said before, too lazy as a pup.” Doggo pulled a blue knife out of existence and tossed it between his paws.

“Oh yeah, Grillbz, what were you like as a kid-er younger fire, woof?”

“…kids fine… I am humanoid after all…and…uhh… I was very… wild.. always melting perfectly good floors…and my mother complains that I was super loud all the time…”

“OK, first paps used to be quiet and now you used to be loud. Grillby, I doubt you can even shout, woof.”

“…I talk in a perfectly loud voice…”

Even sans snorted a bit.

“…I can… shout…it just is hard to in… Common language… with my… accent…”

“Go ahead then, shout in Old Fire, that sounds awesome, woof!”

Grillby cleared his throat,

“…o00OOOoCRACKLECRACKLEoo0000ooZHHWRROO000oOOZHHHAAAH000CRACKLEOOoo…” It sounded like a cross between a fireball and a sparkler…still not super loud-but definitely noisy! And importantly louder than the quiet calm voice Grillby tended to lean towards.

“what did you say?”

“…Uh… I just said “I am Talking Loudly.” Grillby grinned sheepishly

“Come on, do something interesting, Bark! And me or LD will teach you something fun in Dogtongue!”

“…uhhh…”

“ Grillby, don’t be such a buzzkill, woof” Sans was curious, too.

“…Fine…” Grillby pushed his glasses back. His hair went molten and he let out what sounded like a small eruption/explosion “…ruuuuuuuuBWAKOOM…” If another car had been on the road, they would have assumed Pap’s convertible had broken down.

Doggo and Sans high fived Grillby.

“…you shouldn’t hi-five me, I just told you to f-off.” Grillby smiled a sinister flame-smile. Sans mad the “ooh” face.

“Haha, ok, well that can only be expected from a Br-Br-haroof like yourself!” Doggo smiled, and Lesser Dog covered his mouth with his paws…

“ok,” Sans turned to Doggo, “i’ll bite what did you call my boyfriend?” Sans glowed his eye menacingly…

“Hey, don’t get magic-mad on me skelebro, but I just honestly called him a-er… promiscuous… monster, woof.”

“…riiight…”

“eh, c’mon Grillbz, Red told me about your younger days in the cit-“

The car was suddenly very hot, as Grillby may or may not have accidentally set Doggo’s treat more on fire… at least the ice was off the car doors now.

“…Red says a lot of things…”.

“Well, you used to say a lot of things after a good drink, woof.”

“…Ugh…”

The group switched subjects, it turns out that Doggo was going to be able to look for work again.

“I have an appointment tomorrow to meet up with a Seeing-Eye dog, I think her name is Jasmine. It’s a little weird, her human trainers didn’t seem to want to put her on the phone at first, I guess cause she has a strong accent. I actually had to put LD on to translate for me.”

“…Is she… a monster dog?...”

“No, no she’s just a regular dog, I guess the trainers are technically her owners…huh it is a bit weird to think about…I just wanted to get a sense of what she is like. But LD says she seems ok with her circumstances. And it won’t be weird, I’m paying her a salary, and giving her the spare room in the apartment.”

“Bark Woo Woo!” Lesser Dog explained that for a regular dog she seemed calm, and like she would get along with Doggo. It still seemed a bit weird and Grillby was not sure what a normal dog would do with a salary.

Papyrus dropped them off the Dog Monsters at their apartment, and then backtracked to his and Sans house. The taller skeleton jumped on the green plaid couch to finish some knitting and the late show with Mettaton.

*********************************************************************

Sans and Grillby snuggled onto Sans mattress, which was on the floor, since Sans hadn’t had time to fix the bed yet. It was covered in a nice blue sheet and poufy comforter, so it wasn’t too bad, and it made it safer to shortcut onto. Still Sans was saving up for a new one because he would prefer Grillby didn’t think of him as too lazy...

Speaking of impressing the flame-monster, the skeleton had picked up the dirty laundry, which now lived in a hamper, bought a new blue lava lamp for his bureau, next to his alarm, and moved the treadmill to the corner of the room. Even more remarkably, it looks like the treadmill had gotten used once or twice in the last week. Finally, the former trash tornado was now just an empty tornado acting as a fan. It kept blowing Grillby’s face sideways, so Sans pushed it further away, towards the closet.

“…hey Sansy…I like the lava lamp…well melting wax lamp…”

“it reminds me of someone cute.”

“…a blue blob wax monster…?”

“they didn’t have a red one, ok?”

“…I am not shaped like a bubbly blob…usually…”

“pretty sure most home owners don’t recommend having a campfire in your home.”

“…How about a fireplace?...”

Sans mischievously winked at Grillby.

“you mean the mattress? I’m pretty sure that’s where fire belongs in this room.”

Grillby gave Sans a quick jab to the ribs. Sans stuck his tongue out.

“ok, ok. look you are an independent flame and you can be wherever you want to be.”

“…How about here?...”

Grillby jumped onto Sans’ back and hugged/spread himself onto Sans like a fiery jacket. Sans snuggled into him, and wiggled his laptop out.

“oh grillbabe, this is going to drive you crazy!”

“..sure thing Sansy…”

Grillby watched in horror as Sans showed him “relaxing” youtube videos of things unmelting: where humans had melted something and then reversed the video. It was honestly just unsettling but he could not look away. Sans made up for it by showing Grillby some explosion videos afterwards… now those were relaxing.

Grillby got Sans into a baking competition, and the two promised to try to make a soufflé together after watching the contestants scramble their eggs by mistake.

“…It can’t be that difficult…”

“yeah, cooking is just chemistry.”

The two cocky monsters watched for a few hours before falling asleep.

************************************

The next couple of days were extremely busy for Grillby. Undyne had called off work for the week, meaning Papyrus had to cover for her, since he was assistant coach. On top of Papyrus’ lessened ability to work, Charlene had quit to focus on her exams, and Red was in quarantine with some sort of horrible Avian Flu.

The humans were freaking out over the flu and forbidding his girlfriend, Violet, from taking care of him since it was transmissible to humans. Instead, they were containing him in an emergency room with a mixture of Doctors and (to Red’s vexation) poultry specialists.

The doctors had even insisted on testing everyone Red worked with, meaning that Cindy, Dom, and Flopsy had gotten the privilege of Q-tips up their nose, to have their snot analyzed for the virus. The Doctors called their superiors and rolled their eyes as they were forced to attempt to swab Grillby and Papyrus, getting some dust off of Papyrus’s nasal canal, and fifteen burnt Q-tips from Grillby.

Oddly enough the human protocol specifically had mentioned amphibians could not get the disease, so Bobby the Froggit got to laugh while Grillby finally put the flames out enough around his face for the Doctor to get some ash off of it.

“…Can you… even analyze that…?”

“Well, if there is at least some trace of DNA in it, that we can prove is negative we will take it, but I suspect you have probably just sterilized the Q-tip. Still, now we can tell our jerkoff superiors an effort was made…”

The workers were cleared in a few hours, and the bar got the green-light to open up again, with everyone signing a get well card for Red.

**************************************************

On Wednesday night, Sans jumped into the bar from work. The place was super crowded with college kids for trivia night, with Flopsy handing out drinks and food, while Grillby manned the bar and grill, carefully checking each ID before handing drinks out. The elemental smiled at every customer, doing tricks with the drinks, the college students thought his ability to set fire to the drinks with a few sparks was the coolest… they tipped him extra for flaming shots. Grillby also found it pretty easy to make a flaming heart, or star, or to spell out a name. Heck, even most monsters tipped him extra for that. With Red and Dom handling the bar lately, Grillby hadn’t gotten a chance to shine for a while…

Sans winced as a group of giggling college girls batted their eyes at Grillby after he spelled their names out for them… Sans realized that as a bartender people would flirt with the guy… but ugh. Grillby tried to play it cool and calmly respond to their innuendos. He was used to Bunny (who would never let that one night drop) or other monsters flirting with him- you just smile back, politely laugh at their dumb jokes, and voila- larger tip. Telling a customer to back off, well, it was usually easier to put off with one or two weird comments and move on. Still, it was awkward; he was learning more about human anatomy than he wanted, and after some random eye monster winked at him, he just wished everyone would respect him a little more…

Sans sat in his favorite seat and did his best not to accidently spill the other customers drinks with blue magic. He had been a customer for years, and monsters would sometimes flirt with Grillby, it just hadn’t bothered him before. Most of the college students and monsters eventually went to start the trivia round, but one human, a long haired red headed woman, stayed and gave Grillby mooneyes, which Grillby did not seem to notice. Sans decided to step in…

“Hey babe, how about the usual?” Sans asked for his ketchup…earning a withering stare from the red head.

Grillby sighed in relief at Sans’ low voice and slid him a bottle of ketchup, smiling gently. Sans took the opportunity to blow him a kiss, which Grillby happily made a show of pocketing. The college girl called Grillby over again, leaning over the counter on her elbows, pushing a few anatomy pieces forward, and asking for another *special* drink breathily.

Sans watched in amazement as Grillby let it roll off him and simply poured the beverage, complete with a flaming rendition of the customer’s name with a heart, not breaking his stride. Sans supposed not always having a mouth probably helped with hiding emotions, but he knew the guy enough to tell that his flame usuall only flickered that way when he was annoyed. The woman slipped Grillby a tip-and a piece of paper with a number written on it- and asked if he would make her some fries. Sans wished he could un-see her staring at Grillby’s ass as he went to the kitchen… subtly burning the number slip in his hand.

“he’s not interested.” Sans tried to tell Redhead lady…

The woman shot Sans a dirty look, then smiled coyly.

“I saw him first, ketchup boy!”

“uh, actually we’re dating.”

“In your dreams…Shortstuff…”

Seriously? Shortstuff! At this point Sans wanted to reply something nasty back, but Grillby came out behind the kitchen door with the fries. Instead, Sans leaned forward pushed his chest out and batted his eyes at Grillby. In the breathiest voice he could manage he asked,

“ohh, grillbabe, could i get an extra special ketchup?”

Grillby snickered, and gave Sans a second ketchup with an umbrella in it and a kiss on the forehead. Redhead woman looked disappointed. She backed off to a table, chewing on her fries in consolation.

“…Thanks Sans…I hope you don’t mind…this happens a lot…”

“it’s fine, just tell them to back off if they get uncomfortable, though.”

Grillby nodded. It had gotten much worse than a few unwanted phone numbers… and he felt like he could handle it at this point in his career…but he supposed he could tell people to back off more, if not for himself, for Sans…

The rest of the night passed without incident… Sans had fun trying to balance the little umbrella between his jawbone and skull-plate. Grillby pulled off some impromptu juggling based fire drink tricks- to a crowd of very impressed students.

After about the sixteenth trick, Sans noticed how exhausted the guy was, and snuck off to do several waves worth of dishes. Sans noticed most of the human customers were pretty polite or at least normal to Grillby, and if nothing else they were tipping well enough for college students. Finally, the bar closed after a late last call, and Grillby and Sans had some alone time.

Grillby pulled Sans into a hug and flopped into him…it had been a long night.

**********************************************

Still- Grillby had been looking forward to seeing Sans and insisted he had a few hours left in him…

“grillbz, we can always practice tomorrow, you seem out of energy”

“…Sans… I am energy… come on… let’s have some fun…” Sans supposed the flame monster had a point.

Sans cleared a few tables aside, and got out an old tape recorder. Grillby tried to brush the dust off his blazer, and grabbed a quick drink of olive oil and gasoline to refresh himself… he realized he probably smelled awful, but his flame would have a bit of energy for a few hours...

Sans started the music-for tonight- Sans was teaching Grillby the basics of the tango and Grillby would show Sans some rave dance moves.

“ready to give it a shake?”

Sans started the sultry music, and to the rhythmic beat took Grillby’s right hand, and linked his left elbow with the elemental's. Grillby smiled at how solemn Sans expression was, to anyone else it might be a bit funny, but to Grillby it was very romantic. Grillby smiled and let Sans carry him away…

Sans was pretty fast on his feet: He easily matched his footsteps together, and slid around on his tiptoes… hand out, fingers extended, guiding Grillby with his core across the cleared bar floor. One step back, one step back, one step forward, one step forward, next side-to-side, but in a circle, media luna...

Grillby had to admire his partner…Sans whole body elegantly dipped in and out with the music… Grillby looked at Sans, who for once had eyes that smoldered more than his own. Grillby had always thought Sans was cute, but tonight- he looked devilishly handsome.

The elemental stumbled a bit, and kept moving his feet to touch on accident, but he still felt his heart pound with excitement. Sans was guiding him calmly, effortlessly picking up after his missteps, leading him through a circle of footwork, nudging him with blue magic when needed-around and around, until Grillby felt the steps come to him more naturally.

Sans could tell Grillby was getting the hang of it, now was the time to add another element…

“hey, if you move your leg behind yourself like this, we can try adding in a grapevine…”

Sans magically helped Grillby move- Blue magic spiraled around the elemental’s leg, helping him cross his right leg behind the left. Grillby found himself continuing to step around Sans in a circular motion, and then back to starting position. Grillby let out a laugh- this was pretty fun- and he got a bit tingly every time Sans used the little spirals of magic to touch his leg...he kind of liked that… They weaved the grapevine into their routine after their media luna circle.

After an hour Grillby’s confidence grew, and he was adding a few flourishes and a leg hook around Sans to a few parts of the song. Sans thought Grillby was a really playful dancer… they ended the tango on a twirl together.

******************************************************************************************

Eventually, they switched to Grillby’s rave dancing… which was a loose mix of shuffle and jumpstyle…Grillby usually just had fun in clubs, and his dancing wasn’t the lightest, but it had a lot of energy. Sans had fun with the shuffle, but the jumping- well Sans did not find that the stomping motion came naturally to him. Grillby really got into it though; his hair was pumping up and down with his legs, and his arms moved in synchrony to the beat…

Grillby just figured they could dance freely for the last twenty seconds, shuffling in opposite directions before jumping back to each other while banging their heads slightly… It may not have been the tightest but the two goofballs were having a blast.

Sans eventually started to play with glowing his eye on and off to the beat, and Grillby decided to end with a fire burst… together, they successfully exhausted themselves… and slumped together into a booth for the night…

******************************************************************************************

Sans woke up around midnight, and couldn’t help notice Grillby smelled like burnt olives still… The skeleton cracked every vertebra in his spine and hopped Grillby into his room… tucking a blanket over him and snuggling next to him for the night.

 

*******************************************************************************************

The busy week continued on, and Sans had to scramble to come up with a surprise power-point on his data for a presentation, so Grillby woke up alone, to a note with a little buttercup folded into a corner with a promise to meet up for dancing again later. Looks like Sans had practiced his origami a bit. Grillby smiled, he would not have minded if Sans had woken him up, but the extra sleep had been nice.

Grillby stumbled down the stairs, throwing on a fresh vest, and trying to get his flames to stay back for once. He put on the arm garter, and the bowtie and wondered if maybe he should mix it up with the suspenders again today- eh tomorrow. For today he just wanted to try to get his hair to stay up in a ponytail. Sans had been playing with his hair the other night, and had somehow got it to stay back for a few hours. That monster was magic…

Grillby finally got his hair to behave a bit and headed down a few minutes early. Several bunny families were waiting outside the doors for a brunch, and Grillby sighed at another day of trying to avoid an allergic reaction to his own cooking. He tripped through the fire exit and his fire hair fell into his face… yup, today was going to be super-duper.

*********************************************************************************

Sans, had gotten the email from his boss about the impromptu power point at about 5AM. He short-cutted to lab and tried his best to get his images sized correctly, and his error bars on his graphs. Every time he went from his computer to the lab computer he had to redo the bars… ugh.

Boss-man David ended up liking the presentation, which was good and bad. He liked it so much, that Sans was now being asked to write a grant by next Wednesday on the project… Sans hated scientific writing. Gaster had always had a knack for it always keeping with the three c’s clear, concise, complete. The jerk had even been good enough to make his scientific writing _elegant_. Sans was lucky if he could get two of the three c’s.

Sans always went through a few dozen drafts, with entire paragraphs cut out ultimately. And While Gaster had been willing to non-judgmentally give him those edits, he doubted even Randy would have the time. Sans just wanted the day to fly by so he could go back to Grillby’s for a nice ketchup and snuggle. Instead he was hammering out technicalities with David…

******************************************************************************

The bar miraculously managed to close on time today, and Papyrus even squeaked out of school quickly enough to get in for the dinner rush and make up a few lost hours. The extra help kept the bartender at the bar, and Grillby was starting to realize he was happiest when he could watch the customers and interact with them.

In fact, when Sans came in and volunteered to wash a few plates, Grillby had enough energy to volunteer proofreading a draft of Sans’ grant. He honeslty did not understand any of the aims or experiments, but he helped Sans avoid switching tenses and got rid of the skeleton’s tendency to lowercase everything.

Eventually, the light Thursday crowd shuffled out around 10, and Papyrus decided to jog home- although Grillby could have lived without him emphatically winking at Sans while asking if he was coming home later… but ultimately the two were feeling much less stressed than they had previously anticipated.

They practiced the group skeleton dance part for a few hours…most of it was shaking your arms (to rattle them) and clacking your teeth together while dancing in a circle. They had the steps down but Grillby felt like he was just wasn’t built to rattle or shake even… He could move his arm quickly, but instead of shaking, he just blurred.

Sans pointed out that Undyne, Frisk, and Alphys wouldn’t be able to rattle either, but Grillby knew they could at least shake and clack their teeth. His confidence was pretty low, and he could stand in the right place at the right time, but was lumbering through each move.

“…I guess…this kind of works…” Grillby shook his arms, and let the flames flow up and down… he couldn’t get any noise besides a feint sizzle. Sans thought it was fine, but he waned Grillby to be happier with it…

As Sans lightly bounced through the steps, and Grillby continued to lumber around, Sans thought of a fun idea that would solve a few of their problems…

“so, I’ve been thinking about the other skeleton traditions besides the dance and, i think i know how we can get a-head.” Sans walked up to Grillby and carefully removed his glasses with a kiss.

“…I don’t see how losing my vision is going to help me become a skeleton…”

“trust me grillbz, i think we can make our dance a bit spookier, and help you clack some teeth at the same time, do you mind if i toss this at your head?”

Grillby tried to squint at Sans, who looked like a blurry blue and white marshmallow. Sans seemed to be holding some white blob thing?

“…um I can’t see what you are holding…but sure…”

“just don’t burn it up-its pretty important.”

Grillby let the round white...object pass through his flames, into his head… and then Grillby looked through his eyesockets to see…. wait Grillby was pretty sure he did not have eye sockets?

“Sans did you throw your head onto me?” Grillby was talking through Sans’ teeth. His voice was surprisingly low… and elegant? he wasn’t sure how he felt about it, but Sans seemed excited. He turned around to see the rest of Sans walk up to him and turn him to face the mirror over the alcove seats…where he saw and felt a headless skeleton hugging a flame monster with a flaming blue skull for a head.

Grillby did not exactly like seeing a headless Sans… he touched where Sans head should be… and added a magical flame- it shouldn’t hurt him, but it looked better than nothing. The flame turned a blue and looked a bit like Grillby’s head normally would.

The flame head didn’t seem to have a mouth, but still Sans talked from it,

“…oh manoo00now i’m a real hothead…that’s a goOO00dea grillbz…oOO0hyou’re your voice is so cute as a skeletoO0n….yeah…do you… think this will be coo000l…?...” Sans was talking through the blue flames… his voice much softer and garbled than usual, but he seemed to be doing alright.

“Not gonna lie-this is pretty unsettling, although your flame voice is really cute-But I think this could count for trading bones for the day!” Grillby clacked Sans’ teeth and let out a laugh.

Sans was having a bit of trouble controlling the flame head, and Grillby could tell he was nervous but excited from reading it.

The two practiced the dance with the swapped heads for a bit, Sans occasionally tossing his own head back onto his torso for a minute…whenever he got too dizzy from Grillby’s dancing- this was totally bizarre… he could feel his head in Grillby’s, but he knew he was talking in a flame over his body. He wondered if they ever properly merged if he would keep control of his skull?

Grillby was feeling much more confidant, and was having a blast. So much of a blast that he tripped backwards and fell on his back…

Sans ran to pick him up.

“…sOorry i can’t magic catch you if we are like this… i can’t use my magic when my head is off- g0OO0tta concentrate… on too many things…”

“Oops, sorry Sans. Maybe I should admit I’m a bit tired. Want to take a break?”

The two separated out completely. Grillby tried to phase his fingers through his face- yeah no more skull- and he’s better find his glasses.

“…Want to go upstairs?...”

The two headed up to Grillby’s apartment- it had started to rain- which wasn’t in the weather report- Grillby hated the Spring season…

The pair skirted up the stairs and scooted into the apartment for a well deserved rest.


	18. In which it rains

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This one has some upset...

 

The next morning the rain continued to fall, and even though the sun was not up yet, the gloom from it seemed to darken the room further. Sans tried to stealthily get dressed and pop over to work- but managed to trip onto the bed onto a certain sleeping fire-monster.

“…hmmm…hey Sans… want me to warm you up before you go out in that…?” Grillby radiated some warmth into Sans and snuggled him for a few seconds before letting him get up. Sans already had his laptop bag around his shoulders and his ID badge on-he had been close to leaving.

“thanks grillbabe. i wish you could come with me today…I’m giving a big talk this morning in front of the department, going to have to field a lot of questions… ugh… i can use the feedback for the grant i guess, but i’m actually a bit choked up about doing well.” Sans grabbed his lab coat and shook it.

“…Want me… to give you a call before it…?”

“normally yes… but i’m going in the middle of a lecture series, so i’ll be in an auditorium…would be pretty rude to have my phone on.”

“…Well then… this will have to last a while…” Grillby rolled out of bed and embraced Sans giving him a sweet burning kiss on the jaw.

The skeleton smiled and popped away for about twenty seconds, returning with a (very wet) lily for Grillby.

“promise me you wont get wet today. love you grillby” Sans remembered Grillby wanted help with his hair, and used a little magic to get it into a ponytail...

“Love you Sans” Grillby dried Sansand snuck in one more kiss before he popped off. 

****************************************************************

It was still raining…Undyne and Alphys’ backyard looked worse for the wear… Alphys had put up a tarp next to the pool and was huddling under it with some mostly warm breakfast for Undyne. Around the pool, lay various plates of not eaten food, a few towels, and Undyne’s swimsuit from yesterday, Alphys had went and gotten her a full on wetsuit- insisting it would keep her a bit warmer in the rain, To be fair it was a little chilly, despite Alphys having both purchased and built an extra pool heater.

Hidden under the tarp were a pile of books on raising various aquarium fish, reptiles, and a more specific book about young fish monsters. Alphys had gotten Undyne out of the pool a few times, insisting that her girlfriend needed to read the books, too. The good part about that plan was that Undyne hated reading, and would sometimes fall asleep for a few minutes while Alphys was on Eggwatch. Alphys herself felt like she hadn’t slept in days… well, because she barely had.

Undyne wouldn’t stop circling, and Alphys had to do her best to get the stubborn fish to stop for a minute to eat something, or to rub a lotion into her scales to help with the constant exercise and scale stress… despite Alphys best efforts, some of Undyne’s scales were turning grey, and a few had fallen out- a sign of exhaustion…

Undyne thrashed around the pool… Her mothering instinct had kicked in, and she hadn’t stopped circling the eggs for a good three days… even in her sleep she was circling. Part of her wanted to stop- it was ridiculous- she knew she was driving Alphys sick with worry. But she just… couldn’t… stop… watching…

A bird flew over the pool.

Undyne threw a magical spear at it- and Alphys had to use her own magic to prevent the poor thing from turning into an explosion of feathers… Undyne looked up at Alphys in shock.

“Undyne, pigeons don’t eat fish eggs.”

“It was flying right towards them!”

Alphys was taking off in a week, and boy could she not wait for an excuse to kick Undyne out of the swimming pool. Undyne wasn’t letting her in for long periods of time so she could “save her energy for work.” For now Alphys would have to settle with the excuse of eating to get her out, which she barely did.

Yesterday, Papyrus had come over for dinner, and actually pulled her out of the water with blue magic. Undyne had tried to clobber him for his trouble, but Alphys had thanked the skeleton profusely…

“He-hey Undyne, I think we could probably let the eggs sit a mi-minute. Come eat the breakfast I made for you!”

Undyne reluctantly swam to the edge of the pool- she was embarrassed about Paps having to get her out yesterday, she could make an effort and try and eat for Alphys now. Still she didn’t fully leave the pool- and let her lower half sink into the shallows as she started to wolf down the multi-course meal Alphys had made.

The dinosaur had decided that at least one of them had to get good at cooking if they were going to have monsterlings and was trying out a few things...aside from bloodworm sausages (Alphys passed on those), sardines, and onigiri, Alphys had made a three cheese omelette with chicken pieces, hashbrowns (slightly burnt but ketchup covered it up), a mix of fruit and nuts with cheese, and some roasted vegetables. To drink Alphys had brought out a glass of milk, a jug of orange juice, a kale protein shake, and some coffee.

Alphys knew it was a lot, but she was 100% certain Undyne was not eating the lunches she left for her, and wanted to make sure she got enough at least in the morning…

So here they both were sitting in the rain by the pool, and Alphys had to leave in half an hour because her Department head couldn’t give her time off until next week… Alphys started to shiver and tried to talk some sense into her sweetheart.

“U-Undyne, its been raining for a while now…maybe we should consider moving the eggs into the bathtub for a bit, you could rest, and we can bring a heater into the bathroom…”

The worst part was that Undyne knew she was being a little ridiculous right now. Or was she? Her mother was amazing, but she had lost two clutches, and then had only her and her brother survive… Undyne did not want anything to happen to them…What if she lost this clutch? Alphys would hate her… Alphys couldn’t swim well- it was up to her!

“Alphys, I know I sound crazy right now, but I don’t want to risk moving them. What if the shock hurt them? What if the pH was too low from the city water, what if-”

Alphys suddenly looked frustrated, She let out a small roar, and put her fist down to her plate.

“Undyne! It should be fine, You need to rest! I’m worries that you are going to hurt yourself- its ju-just that I don’t want you to ACK ACK Achooo!”

Alphys paused, as her eyes went wide and she let out a loud sneeze. Undyne suddenly realized Alphys was shaking. The dinosaur monster had camped outside last night in the rain...

“Alphys!” Undyne finally jumped out of the water and marched her love inside.

“Alphys, if you need to you can stay inside, I know water isn’t your natural element. I don’t want you getting a cold” Undyne grabbed an entire roll of paper towels and started trying to dry Alphys off as quickly as possible.

“He-hey I think it is a little late to be worried about a cold… look, love, if you are go-going to constantly watch the eggs, I AM TOO. I fe-feel bad enough going to work and leaving you alone with them. ACHOO!” Alphys grabbed a few paper towels from Undyne to clean her face.

“Maybe you should stay home?”

“We-well I could help you watch the eggs if I call in si-sick! We can move them in and-”

Undyne recognized the glint of determination in Alphys eye and knew she had to act fast. The fish monster did not like the idea of Alphys going to work with a cold, but if staying at home meant she would get sicker…

“Actually, Alphys, I think I’m just over-reacting.   You should go in- we don’t exactly have a savings plan for the tykes… it might be better if you help them by working a few more days. That makes you still helping the eggs- but - uh for their future.”

Alphys frowned… they had a bit saved up, but there wasn’t much she could do that Undyne could not. Next week would be different- she’d be there with Undyne, maybe persuade the fish monster to relax.

“Al-alright Undyne I know me staying in the cold will only get me sicker, and that won’t help you or the eggs,” Alphys locked eyes with Undyne, and suddenly put on a face that looked a bit more like Carvata’s,

“But when I get home tonight, rain or no rain, even if you wont let me bring them inside-I want YOU to go inside and take a nap for a few hours while I watch the eggs…”

Undyne put a blanket around her sweetheart, and the two finished their breakfast with Undyne trying her best not to stare at the pool every three seconds. As soon as Alphys left, Undyne jumped right back in…

***********************************************************************************

Grillby tried not to look outside that day… the rain was really pouring down, and it always unnerved him like crazy-he had actually almost dropped a plate this morning! The lunch rush had passed, and now it was just a few of the regulars frequenting the bar.

Ugly and Drunk bunny had split up, and the latter was in the bar planning to try to get as many drinks as she could out of Red.... who was back in the bar- not too worse for wear. He had lost a few feathers, and his girlfriend Violet was keeping an eye on him. The dogs were playing a game of poker and a few bikers had come in for an early drink, one was arm wrestling Big Mouth.

Best part about today was that both Papyrus and Cindy were in (no gym class today). Grillby finally had a full staff, and could relax a bit… He peered out the window…

The rain really poured down… Grillby would be out in a few seconds if he dared step outside without cover…The sky had taken a nasty dark color, tinged green almost? Suddenly the distant sound of thunder filled the room, followed slowly by a flash of lightning. Grillby didn’t think much of it…

Grillby moved to the bar. After a few minutes the storm had rolled in and the lightning came crashing down near the window! Grillby leaned against the kitchen door as the power cut. He waited a moment-

And the generator kicked in… man he was happy he had insisted on one. The customers sighed in relief- underground if the power went out, well Grillby liked to light candles, but the romantic lighting didn’t enhance customer mood… Grillby sighed in rel-

“GRILLBY!” Papyrus, pulled Grillby into the kitchen, through the kitchen door with a blue icy pull, almost flinging him into the counter.

“GRILLBY- WE HAVE TO GET TO UNDYNE’S NOW! CAN YOU HELP?”

“…Can I help?... what happened?”

“GRILLBY!” Papyrus got down to match Grillby’s height before hurriedly speaking.

“UNYNDE! HER EGGS ARE OUTSIDE IN A BODY OF WATER. THE POWERS GONE OUT…ALPHYS KNOWS THEY CAN’T KEEP THE TEMPERATURE UP… UNDYNE WON’T PICK UP… NOT FOR ME… OR ALPHYS…I TRIED CALLING SANS, BUT HE HAS THAT STUPID LECTURE… ALPHYS IS WORRIED... I HOPE… SHES JUST WORRYING OVER NOTHING, BUT… I DO NOT HAVE HEALING MAGIC OR THE ABILITY TO WARM THINGS, SO I COULD USE SOME HELP”

“..OK… My car… you drive… you’re faster… try to call Tori, she can heal…and I… think…I have a backup…”

Grillby tried not to look too panicked as he jumped into the main room and scanned the bar. Magic usually went along with monster type… and usually healing magic was a mammalian based monster thing….not dogs though… but rabbits tended to have it. All of the Rabbits had left… except….

“…Hey… Bun…”

“Howdy Grillby baby!”

“…are you… sober…?”

“Grillby! Hun! You know me, I can handle more than one lousy beer!”

“…Ok… it’s an emergency… I need a your magic…”

“No problem Grillby, anything for you”

Drunk Bunny blew a hiccup-y kiss at Grillby, who just grabbed her arm and pulled her to the back of the restaurant.

“Woah! Grillby-honey not so rough!”

Papyrus was waiting by the door, umbrella in hand. Grillby jumped into the backseat of the car with Bunny.

Papyrus, waited for Grillby to throw his seatbelt on, and then made sure Bunny got hers on, before reversing quickly and pushing into the road. The rain was absolutely pelting the car- Papyrus had to drive a little slowly-albeit less slowly than Grillby would have. He could barely see the road ahead of him it was so thick… Grillby knew Sans was busy, but he tried texting him anyway.

It was a tense situation, and Bunny was not making it any easier…

“Grillby baby, its been a while since we’ve been in the backseat of a car together…” Bunny tried to lean on Grillby, who shot his flames out defensively.

“….BUNNY!...”

“SERIOUSLY?” Papyrus swiveled the car slightly

“Oh yeah, me and Grillbz, well we never dated but…”

“…BUN… Please… we don’t have time to talk about that now!... and you know I’m with Sans, so that was a little rude”

“hmmph, you can be pretty cold for a sentient fire, flamecheeks. But I get it, not now.”

Grillby had a feeling Bunny was going to bring this up again… he hadn’t dated anyone since he got out of Hotland… but when he had first moved to Snowdin… he might have hooked up with a few monsters…well things happen… ugh…

Papyrus veered into Undyne and Alphys driveway… The thunder and lightning continued.

Papyrus, Bunny, and Grillby ran to the front door, but no one picked up… Papyrus bolted through their yard, hopped the fence and into the back with the pool, stopping for half a second to pull Grillby and Bunny over the fence. On the other side- A giant green shield covered the swimming pool- but where was Undyne?

 

***************************************

The three monsters ran to the edge of the pool, the seemed safe under the magical barrier…Grillby searched frantically, leaning over the pool- the tips of his body getting sizzled by the downpour… his glasses were fogging up incredibly.

Papyrus wished he had gotten glasses… he glowed his eye, trying to add more light. Another crash of Thunder split over his head. Where was Undyne?

“Three she is! There’s Undyne!” Bunny pointed to what only looked like a shadow to Grillby in the dark light. There she was- not moving- tangled in a plant- her gills barely flapped- and her mouth was open…

Bunny, tried to dive in- but the shield repelled her- she flew back a few feet…

Grillby tried to throw a fireball-which sizzled in the rain.

Papyrus backed up and lit up a glowing blue fist…

“OK, THIS MIGHT CAUSE SOME DAMAGE, BUT WE NEED TO GET TO HER…I’M SORRY UNDYNE!”

Papyrus charged towards the pool, he leapt past the area with the eggs, and brought down a huge femur with full force on the center of Undyne’s shield magic.

The shield shattered into a million magical pieces- before it dissolved its glass-like crack spread shards throughout the pool- Bunny hopped onto the eggs- summoning a small shield- Grillby watched in horror as the yellow one took a shard to its side… Bunny handed the orange and green eggs to Grillby- who concentrated like he had never concentrated before on controlling his temperature. Bunny cradled the yellow egg, sending a pulse of healing magic into its side. Papyrus, pulled Undyne out of the water, and the three ran to the backdoor.

Papyrus lay Undyne on the couch, and Bunny threw herself onto her, hugging her everywhere to pulse out waves of clover green healing magic…

Grillby threw open the cup boards looking for Pots… he found 3 large Soup Pots, remembering the pH rule, he ran back outside and scooped up water from the pool, his hand would recover…. He warmed the water to 27oC. He had no idea if this was ok… his adrenaline was through the roof…

Papyrus grabbed a blanket from Alphys and Undyne’s bedroom, and set Undyne up with it…

Bunny worked her healing magic for a good ten minutes, occasionally, stopping to give a small pulse to the yellow egg in the Pasta pot. The storm raged on… Papyrus held Undyne’s hand and tried talking to her…he tied her hair up for her, and tried rubbing some scale lotion on near her gills, which looked a horrible grey color… honestly he had no idea if it would help… but he had to do something.

Grillby concentrated on keeping the eggs happy… the green one… it looked like it had a burn mark on the side…no…he had been so careful… he moved the three eggs together and simply did his best to bring them to temperature- raising the room from miserably cold to a warm coziness, trying not to shed a magma tear...

Bunny’s magic was slipping from a lovely clover green to a faded grass color…her magic reserves were low… she wasn’t a practicing healer- this was taking a lot out of her.

“Grillby-hon- I’m starting to run low, do you have-?”

Grillby nodded and tossed Bunny a hipflask of the strong stuff.

The magic turned a nice clover green again.

*************************************************************

After half an hour of constant healing magic, Undyne opened her eyes, just for a few seconds… she gasped, and her breathing returned to normal… her eyes closed for another terrifying ten minutes before she opened them again, and bolted upright.

Undyne almost hit her head on Papyrus who had been hovering over her with the scale oil… he had added so much, Undyne was surprised she hadn’t sprouted extras. A brown rabbit monster that reeked of alcohol was still pressing waved of healing magic into her… there were a few empty hipflasks around the rabbit. She had one hand on Undyne and another in a bucket of water, the poor rabbit looked drained.

Last, Undyne saw Grillby staring into the three buckets…tears were running down his face… and one of his hands was black…he looked like he was concentrating.

“The eggs!” Undyne jumped up, and despite any intentions Papyrus may have had looked into the pots. The orange egg looked ok, the little fish inside was wiggling like crazy. The yellow one looked like the jelly coat had been scratched and repaired, but the monster inside was wiggling around. Undyne looked at Grillby who was looking down, now slumping over the green one.

“…Undyne…its…”

Undyne looked down at the green one, past the burn mark, to see that the little monster was not wiggling. She looked more closely… the heart as still beating…

“This one! This one needs help!”

Undyne pressed the green bucket to Bunny…who pulsed it with magic… it gave a feint wiggle…

“…Undyne… I…I …”

“Grillby, it wasn’t from you.”

“…It…It’s a burn… of course its from me…”

Undyne put her own hand on the little green egg, trying to send her own magic to somehow calm the monsterling inside…

Undyne had been circling, circling, circling… and had not noticed that the rain clouds over the pool were looking more treacherous than before. The rain poured down, and Undyne had continued her relentless tirade. Suddenly she heard the thunder, she picked up the eggs to move it inside to the tub-when she heard a closer crack of thunder. Undyne looked up, and dropped the eggs into the shallow part of the pool- one did not submerge fully. She had a split second to summon a shield as the wicked lightning bolt came straight down onto the pool.

The green shield lit up with electricity, as the bolt struck the area above Undnye’s head, rippling electricity cut into he shield, her hair that touched its top sizzled a bit. Undyne shouted as the lightning tore through her defense- trying to push through- ultimately her magic held strong- the bolt faded as every last drop of magic left Undyne’s body…

The little green egg had not been fully submerged when the lightning struck… Undyne could feel the electricity go through the shield, and jump ever so slightly to the little egg… the small zap burned a tiny sliver of the coat… Undyne reached for the egg- but passed out, drifting into the plants in the deeper water…

Bunny tried to keep healing Undyne, but she refused… instead the rabbit poured her full efforts into little green egg. The small wiggle turned to a wave, and eventually, the movement matched that of the other two eggs… but the burn mark would not disappear… and every once in a while the wiggling would pause… the heart would slow down… the back and forth kept up for what seemed like ages. Bunny’s magic went from clover to dying grass green… Grillby tried to hand her his last hipflask, but bunny declined as it turned a grey mint color.

“Ok, honeys, my magic is out… and no amount of booze is gonna get me back up for a while.”

“Bunny, rest up, and we’ll try again in a bit. I -I can’t thank you enough for your help today.”

“No **hic** problem Undyne, I hope- I know it looks bad, but I can sense it is a fighter.”

Undyne nodded her head.

Bunny collapsed- aiming for Papyrus… who just let her lie on him.

Papyrus, Undyne, Bunny, and Grillby watched the eggs a while longer, slumped together and exhausted, each basically drained of magic...

A crack came in- Sans, Alphys, and Toriel- reinforcements had arrived!

 


	19. in which a plan is made...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reinforcements arrive, and Undyne is helped... a plan is formed to help the young monster egg...

Sans looked around the miserable dark living room. Undyne was lying on the floor her hand stuck in a bucket…

Papyrus looked exhausted, trying to glow his eye to get some more light in the room, which was necessary because Grillby was barely giving off a feint glow…

The fire monster seemed to concentrating on using the last of his magic to keep the temperature up…he only had small flames on the top of his head…the rest was not burning at all…just a magma mess- some parts of him were cooling to black…

Drunk Bunny was lying on top of Papyrus… as cute as Papyrus might be, he was all bones… so lying on him was something no one would do unless they were exhausted… Bunny was sending out a healing pulse every time she got a single point of magic back… she needed to stop…

Sans, Toriel, and Alphys ran in, Toriel started with a massive emerald green pulse of healing magic, hitting the entire party. Toriel stayed still, humming and chanting, keeping the magic especially concentrated on Undyne and the eggs.

Sans ran in, first hugging Grillby and Paps, and even Bunny… then he teleported in and out- five or six times- to the grocery store, and then the lumber store with some much needed supplies…

He gently lifted Grillby’s arms up, and wrapped them around a log… The flame monster licked it up slowly… but it wouldn’t catch, Sans suspected he’d be in the lava-state for a while... he’d have to come back to Grillby in a minute.

Sans moved to Papyrus… pouring glasses of milk until about a half a jug of milk had been downed… Pap’s magic always rose with some vitamin D… Sans wasn’t going to give Bunny alcohol, so instead he brought her a whole basket of Strawberries, she was still able to eat on her own thankfully… Alphys seemed to have Undyne mostly covered… so he went back to his flame monster…

Alphys immediately went to Undyne, whose eyes were open, but who was lying on the floor. Alphys wrapped her up in a warm blanket… Undyne shifted as Toriel brushed Alphys off of her…

“Sorry Dear, but I need to check your vitals.” Toriel put a palm to Undyne’s head… a very concentrated wave of deep emerald green magic poured into the fish monster…Undyne glowed green for a minute, but her scales faded to grey… and she remained mostly limp… There was some good news however…

“Your HP is now up to four Undyne… you need to lie down immediately and eat some food…. then it will continue climbing. Alphys, can you make her soup? I fear she won’t be able to handle much else for a few days…”

Alphys sprang into the kitchen… grabbing the last remaining pot from a cupboard.

Undyne tried to say something… she was looking worse than she had a few hours ago…the adrenaline boost from Bunny’s magic was wearing off, and she was starting to turn a more sickly color. Undyne pointed to the bucket in front of her.

“Do not worry my child, I am healing the monsterlings… but you need to rest…You have exhausted both your physical and magical reserves, and you need to be in a bed as soon as possible.”

Undyne choked out a raspy murmur,

“I can’t leave them”

Toriel paused. She understood how Undyne felt… but at the same time the fish monster was in no state to even watch them…

“Undyne, if you don’t rest you will endanger your own life…you aren’t going to like this, but from my experience, you honestly probably shouldn’t leave a bed for a few days. If you want you can stay in here on the couch…but you need to lie down immediately”

Undyne’s eyes went wide and she tried to protest- only to collapse. Toriel walked over to Undyne, and helped her to the large sofa in the back, Alphys followed, and brushed Undyne’s hair out of her face…

“Love, if I can’t watch them, I need you...” Undyne’s eyes flickered, a spark of magic tried to come out... Undyne was in an awful state.

Alphys nodded,

“I will watch them with Toriel, and if they are safe to move, I will bring them closer to you, love…”

With that Undyne let herself be led to the couch, where she fell asleep immediately.

Toriel returned quickly, and moved to the eggs, the yellow monsterling was fully healed by Bunny, orange was fine, but she let out a gasp when she saw the lightning mark on the green one. Toriel immediately blasted it with healing magic. Alphys started to tear up… but kept chopping carrots and onions for soup…

Sans continued back and forth… to the outside world… he found some smaller fuel for Grillby… He needed to get his love’s magic back up… since Grillby was having trouble with the log Sans had a few papers… Sans tossed a few pieces in, but they just sunk into the lava… barely smoldering… it would not be enough. The elemental was still concentrating on keeping the temperature up… and he would burn himself out if he did not get some energy…

“…Sans… I need to keep the temperature up… I know it is risky… but it is so cold in here with the power off…I can’t let the eggs die… so I need to keep this one spot warm…”

Sans had an idea…

Sans glowed his eye, and let blue fire hit one of the logs… it started to burn, and the skeleton placed it against Grillby’s arm… The flame-monster suddenly sparked around it…stealing some blue fire into his own body. Grillby let the log sink into him, and it burned to charcoal while healthy orange flames started to re-appear. Grillby hugged Sans… and Sans kept feeding Grillby logs… As his flames continued and Alphys used the gas stove in the kitchen, the room became cozy and warm… one less problem…

*******************************************************************************************************************

After a half hour, the smell of warm chicken soup filled the room… Papyrus and Bunny looked a bit better- their magic had come back.

Bunny and Papyrus joined Toriel.

“CAN WE HELP IT?” Papyrus would do anything for his friends…

“I hope so, especially if I can have help from…um, young rabbit woman, I don’t know your name, but, do you mind telling me, is your magic up yet?”

Bunny walked over to Toriel… the strawberry basket had done some wonders,

“Hey, hey ma’m Queen Toriel. Name’s Bunny! I can help, but I don’t think it will be much…”

“Are you joking child? You kept both Undyne and these eggs alive for a several hours- their injuries were grave! Are you one of Miss Rose Rabbit’s magic pupils?”

“No… Rose refuses to teach me… uh you see my magic… unlike other rabbits it’s …well it’s powered oddly…”

“Oh goodness?”

“Anyway, Grillby helped keep me from hitting zero magic tonight- but the I’m just a bit…sleepy and exhausted…. I think if I just eat another... er fruit salad… I think I could be helpful…”

“Goodness, Bunny, I don’t know how odd your magic fueling could be, but after this, if you want I could give you some lessons… we could work on finding a way to make it work… we don’t have many healers above ground, and I know my…er… King Asgore is always looking for healer candidates…”

Bunny lifted one of her disheveled ears up…

Sans suddenly understood why Bunny drank so much. Hey ketchup helped him… so he supposed some monsters got magic from booze…He popped to the store for one more carton of strawberries… and one small bottle of Bunny’s favorite liquor…he slipped it to her while Toriel wasn’t looking, and viola Bunny’s magic went right up…

*********************************************************************************************************

After another half hour, the power finally came back! Alphys took the opportunity to stop watching the eggs with Toriel and to feed Undyne some soup that she had simmering. Bunny and Toriel had been discussing a plan for the green egg…

With the power back Grillby stopped worrying about the heat, the elemental let himself relax on the couch. Grillby immediately went through another four logs… and was now sporting a flicker of healthy orange red flames again…his face in particular was now mostly fire and less lava, but he dripped a bit of molten rock through his shoe onto the carpet…. On top of that, his right hand was still looking like glowing charcoal at best…. Alphys handed him some cooking oil, and his flames went higher… and even his feet turned back to flames

Sans put an arm around the more ignited Grillby,

“is there anything we can do for your hand, Grillbabe?”

“Well, its either keep a hand like this and wait for it to heal, or… cut it off and go handless for a few days… eventually the flames will grow back… I prefer to keep use of a hand…”

Sans also preferred not letting Grillby break his own hand off…

Now that the house was warm enough, Alphys thoughtfully moved the orange and yellow monsterlings to the sofa near Undyne… She would be happy to see them nearby if she woke up, and Alphys perched on the couch with her.

Toriel and Bunny came over and after hitting Grillby with a slight pulse of healing magic they and asked him to call and see if Doggo or Lesser Dog were available… Grillby called his own bar and was able to catch Doggo and another Dog Sans didn’t recognize muffled over the phone.

Bunny could be heard talking,

“He-hey Ugly...oh you are glad I called…what! you thought it over!...NO I thought you were the one who…no… and really?! Oh but there isn’t time for that now- it’s an emergency, your cousin…”

Toriel could be heard talking to someone over the phone as well..

“Yes, well, despite my feelings, of course I called you, I know you are like a second father to her…you are welcome… I will send Sans….”

*********************************************************

Toriel waited for Bunny to finish her call before addressing the room.

“Ok, so we still have something we need to help Undyne and Alphys with… I hate to ask more of everyone, but we seem mostly recovered, and the sooner we do this the better…Sans, can I ask you to pop over to Grillby’s resturaunt, and grab a few extra friends… and Asgore….”

Sans did as he was asked… and in a second, Asgore, Ugly, Doggo, and… Endogeny were in Alphy’s and Undyne’ living room, along with Papyrus, Bunny, Sans, Grillby, Undyne, and Alphys. It was a large living room, but a tight squeeze. Alphys moved some of the furniture back so everyone could stand away from Undyne…

“Thank you everyone for coming.” Toriel smiled at the group of friends and acquaintances…Bunny, Ugly, Doggo, and Grillby had to try really hard not to constantly stare at the King of Monsters, luckily Asgore did not seem to mind. Endogeny jumped onto Alphys and started licking her, Alphys let out a small smile and pulled out some Chips for them…

Asgore walked up to Undyne and squeezed her hand. Undyne let out a feint smile…

Toriel continued.

“As you know, Undyne and the eggs got trapped in the pool during the storm… she seems to be recovering, but the green monsterling egg was injured by the lightning… causing their soul and heartbeat to flicker. The pauses in body and soul are obviously very dangerous so this is an emergency. I have called around, and unfortunately most healers are distracted by a serious car accident that occurred during the rainstorm…”

“Three groups of monster families are in critical condition…” Asgore nodded solemly. He had visited one of the families earlier...

“Fortunately, I know of a pre-war spell that should heal the monsterling and allow immediate recovery if successful. Bunny and I, while both proficient at healing, cannot fully heal this monsterling without your help…”

“HOW CAN WE HELP IF WE DON’T HAVE HEALING MAGIC?” Papyrus narrowed his eye sockets in concern.

“Ye-yeah, I don’t even have much regular m-magic.” Alphys looked at her feet.

“Ah, you see, healing magic is special in that while only few monsters are skilled, many monsters can help strengthen its effects with their innate soul power…it is difficult but effective in a pinch…. And we are in a pinch…” Toriel explained. Bunny chimed in next,

“This ancient spell is called “Soul Trade” and you can only orchestrate it if you are very skilled in healing magic, well thankfully we have Lady Toriel here…” Bunny spoke in an unusually reverent voice. Bunny continued,

“It requires at least eight friends of the monster being healed in question to make a formation to optimize their soul synergy…then the friends encourage the monster being healed with positive thoughts…the stronger your friendship with the monster, the stronger the spell. Since this is Undyne and Alphy’s monsterlings, thinking of Undyne and Alphys should heal the egg.”

“Excellent explanation Bunny!” Toriel beamed, Bunny had no idea how much mothering Toriel was going to give her if she let herself be trained…

“is it safe?” Sans wanted to make sure he couldn’t mess this up…

“Since the spell works by monsters sharing positive memories for the monsterling it will be very safe for the monsterling…unless you purposefully direct hateful or very sad thoughts they should be fine.”

Sans sighed in relief, he was pretty sure he could think of a few happy memories…

“But, er, my de-Toriel, isn’t there the-” Asgore started to speak up.

Toriel tried to smile at Asgore without shooting him daggers for eyes and kept talking,

“Yes, to continue, I do want to stress it can be unpleasant for the monsters performing the spell. The way the spell works is a tradeoff, for every positive thought you give the egg, you will recievean equally negative memory or thought. Since the egg has no memories to speak of yet… one of your own negative memories will be drawn out” Toriel paused before continuing,

“The spell goes poorly if those performing it cannot keep in the spell formation. So I suggest starting by sharing just small happy memories keeping in mind that the memories will be shared with the group… I am sorry about the privacy invasion… and… we also may need to use stronger memories if the spell begins to fail… but this is an emergency and I hope since most of us are friends we can share a few sad memories…”

“H-how likely is the spell to-to work…” Alphys looked at Toriel… her eyes shining fiercely… Undyne also sat up a little on the far sofa…

“Well,” Toriel paused, “During the wartime with three skilled healers and at least eight friends, it was 70%... We are two skilled healers, and ten friends… so more like 55%... Unfortunately this is some serious damage, the only reason the monsterling has survived this long is because they have been constantly healed… so we need to act fast for best chances. Before we start is anyone uncomfortable… if you cannot do it, it is fine…”

The room was silent-every monster filled with determination… they were going to help heal the monsterling! While some of them might be a little worried about their fears being shared with the world, they would all do it for Undyne and Alphys!

The friends cleared the living room further, Undyne and the two other monsterling eggs back at the couch. Undyne, tried her best to keep her head upright on the couch pillow… everyone else formed a rough circle around the egg.

“Ok, now, I will examine each soul. You all probably know your primary soul type, but it is a little known fact that each monster has two other subtypes to their soul. Since we have ten monsters we need to form a pentagram like shape… those on the vertices or outer points should all ideally share a type, and those on the edges must share a type with the two vertices that are closest to them…using secondary and tertiary soul types will help us work out the puzzle. Alphys, can you get a computer and write down my scan?”

Alphys pulled up her laptop…

“OK, quick scan, I will go from strongest to weakest characteristic. I can already sense this will be a strong group…”

Toriel walked up to each monster starting with Grillby,

“Grillby: Patience, Kindness, Bravery, Oh! You are too sweet!

Sans: Integrity, Patience, Justice, Very calm and rational Sans!

Papyrus: Kindness, Perseverance, Bravery, Wow, very fitting for a hero!

Alphys Dear, you are a great scientist: Perseverance, Patience, and Justice!

Bunny Dear, you have Kindness, Bravery, and Justice… you would be a good healer…

Caspian, you have Patience, Perseverance, and Integrity, very calm and righteous…

Doggo sweat heart, you have Bravery, Justice, and Patience, and you were a sentry no wonder?

Endogeny, your soul has many fragments… but the strongest are Bravery, Kindness, and Perseverance… you have been through a lot…

Asgore, you know, you are Justice, Patience, and Kindness.

Undyne, you are too ill to join the formation, but you are Bravery, Perseverence, and Kindness...

And I will share that I am Kindness, Integrity, and Patience…”

Everyone murmured a bit.

“he, heh, we are both apparently patient grillbz!”

“…I like that…you really stand up for what you believe…Sans…”

“WELL OF COURSE I AM VERY BRAVE!” Papyrus exclaimed, getting a weak thumbs up from Undyne!

“Oh mom, I know that perseverance is from you…Woof!” Doggo hugged Endogeny…

“So Bunny, you, eh, thinking about going into healing?” Ugly tried to smile, the pair might be able to reconcile…

**************************************

Alphys furiously typed up a diagram in less than a minute… and showed it to Sans and Toriel.

“We are missing a connection of both Integrity and Perseverance, which is not critical, but would help…”

“if endogeny swaps to the point with tori, and then tori and ugly switch places, and then tori and al swap… we can have perseverance without losing any other connections.”

“S-Sans that’s brilliant!”

“no prob al! but with only three of us with integrity, i can’t see an easy way of adding it ”

“Well, my child, it will have to do… time is of the essence…”

Alphys ran to print out the chart they had made. Sans, Bunn, and Toriel marked out a pentagram on the floor…. Alphys posted the chart. Undyne smiled, Alphys was so wonderful...

The author can't figure out how to embed...URL picture of spell chart: http://postimg.org/image/jezv7136z/

 

“Oh-ok, e-everyone there are probably a thousand ways to arrange everyone, but I think time is of the essence… so to simplify it, I am making all the point vertices based on people who have Friendship, since a lot of us have it… patience would have been the other one, but… well… I want to just go with what we have…”

Everyone carefully listened to Alphys, smiling…she had so much at stake here...

“Ok, In this order, Endogeny, Grillby, Asgore, Bunny, and Papyrus, you are the five points of the star. Grillby, Papyrus and Bunny, and Grillby, Endogeny and Bunny- you are particularly important, since you have a double connection with both bravery and friendship… I know some of you are the most tired, but I need you to remain strong…”

Grillby, Bunny, Endogeney, and Papyrus might have been a little nervous, but each nodded solemnly- they could do this!

Bunny and Toriel marked the points, and the monsters went to their places…Alphys then continued with the places,

“Ok, now this may not be i-ideal, but I calculated it carefully, it sh-should work:

La-lady Toriel will stand between Endogeny and Grillby for a bond with Friendship.

I-I will stand between A-Asgore and Grillby for Patience.

S-s-sans will stand between Asgore and Bunny for Justice.

Doggo will stand between Paps and Bunny for Bravery

And Ugly will be between Paps and Toriel for Perseverance.”

Toriel spoke up,

“Ideally, connecting every type of soul virtue makes the spell go more smoothly, those with similarly linked can buff each other, and a variety is very healthy for a monster… but we only have three Integrity souls… and it is not necessary! I will start the spell with Bunny, everyone remember to stay in your spot!”


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey- real talk. This chapter is a feels trip.
> 
> Trigger warning:  
> There is a description of past attempted non-consensual touching in the chapter. I marked it with #################### and ended it with ###########################
> 
> I also updated the tags... 
> 
> I promise that the next chapter will be more happy... but this chapter has a lot of bright moments and character backstory.., I felt it was important for the characters development.
> 
>  
> 
> Also I am sorry I could only figure out how to add links and not tags...  
> that chart required me to do a lot of math...

Toriel moved the green egg to the center of the formation. Bunny and Toriel lifted their arms high, and pulsed healing magic into the monsterling.

Alphy's diagram http://postimg.org/image/jezv7136z/

Everyone felt themselves pulled into a Spell HUD… everyone was black and white, as if it were a battle. The little Monsterling in the middle was a pixelated circle, with a white cloud over it…it looked like a lost soul… the last time this had happened all of the monsters had been trapped by Asriel…

It was a little different in that the monsters could see a health bar for the monsterling, and for themselves…

Toriel started the spell.

_All right, I will share a kind memory, that way Grillby and Endogeny can strengthen it. I have calculated that if everything goes right, we will need only a few rounds. Try to hold on and no matter what you see do not despair…._

_Remember the time Undyne taught my dear Frisk how to play the piano? I hope Undyne will teach you to play the piano too, little one…_

An image of Undyne teaching a nervous Frisk how to play twinkle twinkle little star made Grillby and Endogeny smile, and green light shot from them to Toriel! Toriel’s healing energy grew stronger, turning a verdant forest green…

Red light shot out of the egg and struck Toriel!

An image of a small, frail human with a large blue ribbon appeared, a shadowy Toriel was trying to teach them how to bake…but she mistimed a heating fireball and the child suffered a small burn…

 _At least they had a happy life for a while…_ Toriel wiped a tear from her eye

_OK, Grillby my dear, you must do your best._

_…One time…I was sick at the bar… I spilled your drink and cheese fries Alphys…and set the mess on fire…_

An image of Alphys popped up, the Dino monster frantically helped clean Grillby’s bar, and even added a new layer of varnish.

Alphys and Toriel smiled, a blue beam of patience joined Tori’s healing magic… and surprisingly, green pulses of kindness from Paps, Asgore, Endogeny, and Bunny as well! The Monsterlings health went up a good tick!

The red light hit Grillby in the chest...

A couple of monsters and humans were drunk in the bar, late at night. One dice headed monster tried to grabbed Grillby by the apron around his pants…

“Hey, we want another round pronto!”

“…I need to cut you off…”

Grillby tried to pull away, but the monster threw the glass of water, hitting him all down the front of his suit… the monsters laughed and ran out of the bar...

Present day Grillby grabbed his chest, and looked down… Sans wanted to give the guy a hug…but dared not leave his position.

 _…Customers can be awful…but I love most of them…_ Grillby smiled at Sans.

Alphys turn.

An image of Undyne and Alphys signing to the eggs appeared, Undyne was smiling and petting Alphys with every note. Cyan light pulsed from Alphys, Grillby, and Asgore and was absorbed by the monsterling… which seemed to get a boost from its mother...

Alphys braced for the red light…

A young shadow Alphys was singing in her school choir, and kept stuttering… the teacher, a great horned owl-woman asked if maybe she wanted to join the Science Olympiad instead?

_I’m sure you will have Undyne’s singing voice…_

_Love, I love you and your voice…_ Undyne called out to Alphys from beyond the circle.

Asgore stood tall, ready for the memories…

A young Undyne appeared… Asgore was walking her home after sparring practice… She saw a couple of dragon monsters kids steal a younger’s toy… Undyne got hit a few times before Asgore got there, but she peacefully got the toy back… he was so proud…

_I know you will be just- like your mother_

Sans and Alphys smiled as yellow pulses joined the healing process of Bunny’s beams…

Shadow Asgore then watched as one of his Royal guards he had personally trained got into a fight- with a civilian! Asgore ran to break it up, but the citizens’ arm was dust…

Sans was up, and he tried to think of a very small tame memory…

Alphys was helping Sans study for his physics exam Underground. he had wanted to slack off and watch anime together, but she kept him working. he aced the test, thanks to her!

_kid, i know you are going to be a good friend, just like al…_

After some yellow beams entered Bunny’s heal, a ghostly Alphys appeared… she handed a ghostly dorky teenage Sans back some flowers and shook her head, looking upset. They hi-fived instead… still friends… but…well Sans had wanted to go to prom with someone…

_heh, sorry about that al, but i’m glad you turned me down now all things considered…_

Alphys smiled at Sans…

 _…I’ll go to prom with you Sans…_ Grillby pointed some finger guns at Sans, who smiled again

Bunny was up… she probably knew Undyne and Alphys the least…but…

An image of Undyne came up, walking over to a Bunny who seemed passed out on the table…it was crowded, and all her friends had yet to notice she was inebriated. Undyne helped move her ears out of some spilled booze, and asked if she needed a ride home. Bunny nodded yes, and Undyne carried her to the inn… making sure she was in a good recovery position. Undyne and a few friends came back an hour later to check on her…Grillby and Papyrus smiled and added some green magic pulses…

The red light hit Bunny and Shadow Bunny was no longer at Grillby’s but instead talking to two older stern looking rabbit monsters. One pointed at her outfit and started to shout, she ran to her room, where she got out a bottle and started to chug.

Bunny’s ears drooped… she was wearing the same shirt… she pulled it down a little to try to cover up her midriff.

 _HEY BUNNY, CAN I BORROW THAT SOMETIME?_ Papyrus winked at Bunny, and pointed to his own midriff. Bunny nodded yes, and snickered imagining Papyrus trying to fit into the tiny pink glitter bomb that best described the outfit…

The egg continued to fill its HP…

Doggo smiled as he remembered Alphys convincing him to try karaoke. The words moved as they came on screen, and together they sang ‘who let the dogs out’ to a big old cheer from the crowd! Little orange sparks joined the magic pulses.

Doggo caught the red beam of light in his teeth… Shadow Doggo looked around a crowded bar, but all the dogs were staying as still as possible. Doggo got up to leave thinking everyone had left. But he heard the laughter start as he got to the door-someone ran after him, but he ran to his post instead.

_Woof, heh I guess it can be a little much sometimes…_

_…Free drink and round of darts on me for that one buddy…_ Grillby hoped Doggo would enjou a free round or two, and Doggo’s tail wagged at the thought.

Suddenly, the egg started to fluctuate back and forth in health…

 _Ok, everyone, we need to stop it from dropping downward! Paps can you handle a strong memory?_ Toriel needed Papyrus to deliver…

Papyrus was walking outside the meet-up spot for sentries and guards after just becoming a Snowdin sentry. He waved to say hello to a bear monster couple. One of them thought he was shouting at them and pushed him into the water… Undyne spotted the fuss and jumped in to get him. She made him a hot chocolate, and their friendship started…

Asgore, Grillby, Endogeny, Bunny, and Papyrus shot out green sparks, Papyrus, Grillby, and Bunny added orange… The HP of the egg stabilized, but did not climb.

A red beam of light knocked Papyrus’ skull sideways. Young Papyrus was sitting on a bed in the group foster home in the capitol. He played with a Rubik’s cube, and Sans went to go get them both some lunch from the nice Water Monster lady taking care of them. The three other monster kids that lived there were playing a board game, and Papyrus went to try to join in, in a quiet and maybe a little creepy voice. The other kids were weirded out…one frog with little horns laughed at Papyrus, and another pushed him away… calling him a freak…Papyrus ran back to his bed…the other kids made fun of him more as he cried… one grabbed his Rubik’s cube and smashed it into his eye socket… as Sans and the water monster helped him fish it out … he lied and told Sans he dropped it in…

Papyrus froze… he really didn’t want Sans to see that one…

_hey bro. don’t worry, i uh already… guessed…if those bullies found out how cool you are now… they would beg you to be their pal… cause you are the greatest!_

Papyrus let out an uneasy smile…

Ugly was up… Ugly was feeling depressed… no one would go out with him and even his crazy cousin had a date… His cousin Undyne came by with her girlfriend…she liked science, too! And did not seem to mind him! The three of them hung out…Maybe Ugly was fine with just having good friends…work on loving himself a bit… purple balls of light entered the healing waves… HP inched upwards… Red light hit Ugly…

Young Shadow Ugly stomped out of gym class… the teacher threatened to send him to the office… why wouldn’t anyone pick him… he was great at kickball!...But he knew why… he looked into the locker room mirror and punched at his face reflection… the mirror shattered, his fin needed healing… and he got suspended for a week…

 _Eh, relax Ugs, you know I think your cute!_ Bunny smiled at Ugly… who smiled back and let out a sigh.

Finally, Endogeny was up. They remembered as even the two weeks she was stuck in the True Lab, Alphys came to their bed daily, the scientist was not very good at fetch, but she tried her best… Everyone smiled at the image of Alphys catching a stick in her teeth…

The barrage of kindness orbs entered the healing magic. The egg’s HP crawled up the one third point but then started to lose and gain one hit point rapidly. The red orb hit one of the dog’s faces, causing them to whimper…

Endogeny barked in happiness, but then watched as a shadow surface Dog ran away for them in fear… not wanting to play catch at all…not even the big Rottweiler doggy wanted to play fetch?...none of them wanted to even sniff?... Endogeny tripped over their many legs and cry-howled…

Doggo pulled out a rubber ball from his shirt, and threw it at Endogeny, who caught it without leaving their spot… they endured and wagged their tail(s)...

Toriel looked around the room, most monsters seemed to be holding up… but she needed to end this as quickly as possible! Once a subject started to fluctuate like that, it would only continue to do so…and if it hit zero… They had to finish the spell now!

_Ok, we need to hit it with the strongest memories you can bear…we need to finish it this round! Come now everyone do your best!_

Toriel smiled and recalled a joyous memory with Undyne…

Toriel was clearly lonely in the ruins… she chatted with a froggit… but they hoped away… She was bored and walked to the ruins door….she sensed a monster on the other side of the door! A young Undyne’s voice came through…

“Hey I d-did it, I reached the edge of the world!”

Toriel ran up to the door and chuckled a reply, “The edge of the world congratulates you dear child!”

“Ahhh! Who are you?”

“Uh, There er… Doory the door monster!”

“COOL! I’m Dynie! Why didn’t I see you yesterday!”

“Uh, I’m very sleepy Door, hard to wake up.”

“Does anyone know you are here, Miss Door Monster?”

“Uh no, I’m a secret at the edge of the world!” Toriel smiled as she spoke. Undyne’s parents and a dog sentry came by chiding her for running to into the forest alone!

“Ok Miss Door Monster, that sounds lonely, I’ll bring you my favorite book to borrow!” The next day, Toriel found a joke book half slipped under the gap of the Ruins door, with a note ‘To sleepy Miss Door monster’……

Undyne blushed despite herself…The story was really cute…and now that she knew she hadn’t just shoved a book under the door for no reason, being grounded for a week was worth it…Huge surges of green magic flooded into the spell! The egg’s health climbed… an equally large red, magic beam punched Toriel in the stomach..…

A ghostly image appeared… the figure of an older human boy with a cowboy hat, a clover tucked, and some sort of metal artifact Toriel did not recognize shaking in his hand. The kid dropped the artifact when Toriel asked if they needed help. Toriel brought them home, made pie, and the two read Undyne’s joke-book together, laughing… The human started calling Toriel ‘Ma’…flash forward seven years…they were not a kid anymore… a young human man came up to Toriel, asking now that he was grown, what happened to his older sister that came by ten years ago…Toriel looked down, but was honest… The young man looked conflicted… but Toriel saw them pull out the artifact form out of their drawer and clean it…He gave her a big hug that night...She got a letter slipped under the ruins door the next day… and two days later… Asgore limped to the ruins… he left a letter the young man had written, with a 4-leaf clover taped to it... “I’m sorry Ma, but I had to confront my sister’s killer…” Toriel clutched the note…no child would leave the ruins again…

Toriel put a hand over her eyes… Asgore bowed his head and clutched his upper leg…

 _I cannot apologize enough to everyone…You might find comfort in that he shot my leg…_ Asgore was bawling…

Toriel frowned…

_Dear Lucky, I hope you are at peace with your sister…_

Grillby was up… he took a deep breath…he could do this… he caught Sans eye…

Grillby thought back to when he opened up his restaurant in Snowdin… business was a bit cold at first… then the Royal Guards and Sentries asked to use it for their annual meeting. Undyne and the Dog patrol had a great night… and Undyne started visiting the bar for his cheese fries regularly…

During one of the Sentry meetings an enormous rock elemental squeezed through the entrance to the Bar… splintering the trim the doorway with a jagged hand that was missing a few fingers...

“…go away… you are not welcome here…”

“YOU always get so cute when you’re angry… LOOK I came to make up… come on… I’LL forget all about that little incident…YOU know you need a tough guy like me”

The rock monster pushed past a few of the regulars… Grillby froze as he walked up the bar, and using his broken, pointier hand grabbed Grillby’s arm. Grillby was paralyzed…

“…Let me go…”

“LOOK here…I came all the way out to this DUMP to get you back…now play NICE.”

“BACK away from the bartender!” Undyne grabbed the Rock man’s arm and while straining a bit, managed to push him back away from the bar. The Rock-elemental faced her…

“HMPH... got yourself a new owner, Fire?” He lunged forwards, only to be suplexed through the window by an extremely pissed Undyne…

“Be that way you bitch!”

Rock-man limped off…

Grillby thanked Undyne who made him sit down, while she poured him a drink…

_Your mother stood up for me, she is very brave._

Huge orange and green energy balls went into the egg… a lot more than Grillby was expecting…the egg’s HP was beyond the halfway!

**_#########################################################_ **

crap, the red orb hit Grillby in the face knocking his glasses off…

Younger Grillby was working at a swanky bar… the city monsters loved his fiery cocktails…he was drawing a ton of new customers and he’s been only working for a few weeks … it was a fun, safe working environment, he always had everything he needed, and if a customer got stupid, his good buddy Chip the Bouncer, was more than happy to stomp off the jerks that tried to harass him …

Chip was kind of cute…Grillby gave him free drinks on long nights, and the two bonded over being elementals…

After about a month of working at the place, Grillby was helping with the closing with Chip. It had been a real rowdy Friday night… Chip had thrown out a couple of guys that had tried getting handsy…

Still Chip and Grillby joked about it as they took the trash out-customers were crazy man!

“..Still…Thanks for earlier Chip…You know I hate fighting…” Grillby smiled at Chip.

“WHAT can I say… I want you for myself…” Chip’s eyes glinted…

“…What?...”

It happened so fast… Grillby was pushed against the wall… Chip was kissing him… Grillby wasn’t sure if he liked it…suddenly Chip was ripping Grillby’s shirt off and going for his soul… Grillby flared…

“…Chip…I don’t like this…”

“GIVE it a try, fire…”

“…Chip get off…I don’t want you to touch my soul…” Grillby gave a second warning flare…

Chip started to reach for it.

So Grillby heated himself to a bright white but … Chip started to press into his chest…the asshole was made of rock, he didn’t mind a bit of heat…Grillby had to get him off NOW. He pushed his chest into Chips’ hand and put all his magic into one blast…Chips hand shattered against it…

Grillby collapsed… some Royal guards heard the explosion… and ran from around the corner… Grillby tried to put what remained of his shirt back on… The rest of the night was a blur…

“so he touched your…uh Fire? I guess that’s uh rude? Ok I’ll… uh… sure I will put that on record?” The guard filed the report…

“weren’t you totally into him anyway?” Grillby couldn’t work at that bar anymore…

“SOn, what’s wROng…I thought you liked working thERE?” Grillby did not want to tell his parents…

“…Grillby! My Guard friend told me someone hurt you… in a fight?”… Is this related?” Grillby locked his parents out of the room…

Real life Grillby slumped over… but stood in his square. Sans used his magic to bring his glasses to his hands… Sans wanted to go to Grillby… but he did not know what to say…

 _…Look… I… have moved on… he… does not control…my life…_ Grillby flared and kicked the floor.

**_#########################################################_ **

Alphys looked devastated… Papyrus, Grillby, Toriel… they were really upset… it was her fault her friends were going through these nasty memories..-she should have been there for the egg-she started to try to think of a memory…

_NO, Alphys, stand back!.. others can finish. Alphys out of the formation!…Asgore, too._

No one had noticed that the King of monsters was still clutching his leg after Toriel’s memory… he had felt the least amount of guilt for killing the larger human… he bowed out…The star became four pointed…but the souls connected… and the green vertices were no longer connecting… instead a band of patience formed between Tori and Doggo and a band of integrity formed between Sans and Ugly… Integrity entered the magic beam… and it became a brilliant rainbow color! The HP was now rising between turns…but it still needed an eigth of a sliver of HP… The would easily finish the spell in a turn… no one else had to share a nasty memory… unless… suddenly Sans and Toriel’s eyes met.

_New formation: http://postimg.org/image/oropl5r3f/_

_Sans! You Grillby and Bunny don’t share an element the spell cannot hold when it reaches Bunny’s turn and realizes she does not have patience! You need to finish the spell now!_

Sans closed his eyes… he would share one of his favorites with Alphys… he just hoped he would not disturb the others…with whatever cruel memory the spell would shake from him.

Sans closed his eyes… and smiled. An early college aged Alphys was standing in the dark lab room with a tall skeletal ghost man in a dark black labcoat… The lights from the lab machines meant younger ghost Sans could easily see them in the lowlight, but he pretended he could not, and switched on the lights… what sort of prank were they playing on him?

“S-surprise! H-happy Birthday Sans!” Alphys jumped out from behind the PCR-machine… wearing a pointy party hat on her already pointy horn…

“HaPpY BiRtH.dAy!” Gaster garbled! He was sporting two party hats and leapt onto Sans to put one on him, which fell off Sans round skull…

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRO!” Papyrus had actually shoved himself in an incubator… my god it had been a tight squeeze for the big guy…

“heh, but i don’t know when my birthday is. i-i’ve never had one before.”

“A-actually… I ho-hope you don’t mind… half a year ago when you stubbed your hand… G-Gaster and I carbon dated your hand dust… and… well… Happy Birthday!”

Sans grinned from ear bone to ear bone. He couldn’t remember celebrating a birthday before… The four hugged and laughed, while Alphys tried to get a party hat to stay on his bony head… Gaster had made him a tomato cake… Sans felt like he had a family…

The purple light shot from Sans and Ugly to both Bunny and Toriel! The light flooded the green egg as Bunny and Toriel pushed the spell as hard as they dared… it hit max! It glowed a beautiful rainbow color, and shot out the last of its red energy… at Sans.

Sans braced himself…he was sure it would be the CORE memory… or something nasty from Flowey or Chara, as the red light hit him in the left eye he realized it was a more repressed one…his eye… for a second it looked like it was glowing red…

A tiny Sans was playing a game, shortcutting between magic bones in a bare room… Tiny Sans stopped as a large skeleton man loomed overhead-he looked exactly like Papyrus had cloned himself… except his eyes were shaped like Sans…and glowed red…

“I TOLD YOU NOT TO USE MAGIC BESIDES THE EYE GLOW AND THE BONE THROW! IT IS FORBIDDEN!”

The Skeleton tried to smack Sans in the head, and Sans teleported to the side…

“STAY STILL! YOU FREAKING-”

The skeleton hit Sans this time…another skeleton could be heard running over to him…Sans memory faded out and in…

“i am sorry dear sans and papyrus. but you will have a better life. away from him. stay here and remember, i love you.” Sans only saw a feint green glow as the formless fuzzy ghost blur dropped Sans holding Papyrus onto the steps of a building and ran away… Sans had promised her, he would be good… he didn’t use his magic to jump to her… and just waited for her to come back… a royal guard found him, and the note his mother had left with instructions… the memory faded away.

Everyone looked at Sans, who pointed to the egg instead… It was magically floating into the air now, and the scar on its side faded from a gash to a tiny lightning shaped outline… the egg was now not only green, but had little patched of light blue, purple, orange, yellow, and a tiny spot of dark blue speckled into it…

Everyone cheered and hugged each other. Grillby snuggled into Sans, and then both were picked up by Papyrus in a huge back-popping ordeal. Doggo and Endogeny nuzzled. Bunny planted a kiss on Ugly. Toriel and Asgore even put an arm around each other briefly…

Poor Alphys went around hugging everyone, crying, laughing, and thanking everyone profusely. The Dinosaur carefully cradled the little green monsterling to a teary Undyne, letting her place her hand on it gently.

***************************************

Ugly helped Alphys and Undyne settle the eggs in the bathtub… they would be fine as long as they changed the water twice daily and pH’ed it…

Bunny and Toriel were talking happily, relieved the spell had worked… Bunny promised to meet up with Toriel tomorrow afternoon…

Doggo and Endogeny decided they were going to go for nice walk on the way home, and Sans, Papyrus, and Grillby drove to the skeleton’s house.

“so, uh i’m really happy for the monsterling… you two… its lucky you and bunny got there when you did…”

“…yeah…I’m happy its better…”

“YES… THAT SPELL THOUGH…

“i’m not a huge fan…but I’ll be ok… my memory actually was better than i thought… mom doesn’t seem awful…”

“WELL..I WISH I DID NOT LOOK…” Papyrus trailed off and concentrated on driving…

“… You look great Papyrus… don’t let it get to you…”

“grillby, I don’t know what to say… you… your are one brave monster…if there is anything i can do…”

“… I promise I am… mostly fine… you being here… it is enough for now…”

The three returned home and collapsed into slumber…


	21. In which things get back to normal, Sans is a good brother, and Grillby bonds with the cat.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans, Papyrus and Grillby recover from the previous night, eat some breakfast, and talk about what the want in a relationship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am going to keep updating throughout the day...the next chapter is going to get a little steamy...  
> and we will bump into some friends you might be worried about and finally do some dancing... 
> 
> I hope the drama in the last couple chapters was not too much... but Sans and Grillby are becoming a lot closer. We are going to have a few fluffy chapters now.... 
> 
>  
> 
> Fluffdate: part 1.

The next morning there was a knock on Sans’ door... Grillby rolled off of Sans mattress to answer…

Sans did not wake up… so Grillby opened the door a crack, only to have Papyrus burst the room in a nightgown with a laundry basket. Catsup, who had been keeping Paps company last night decided it was safe to walk past Grillby and beeline into bed with Sans… Sans was Catsup’s favorite… and with Sans staying with the elemental so much recently Grillby suspected the cat resented him slightly…

“GOOD MORNING GRILLBY!”

Grillby blearily rubbed his eyes- he wanted to sleep more. He put his glasses on and took a look at Papyrus who was wearing some sort of black and gold wolf mask.

“… why … are you up so early Paps…and why… are you wearing a mask…?” Grillby rubbed his eyes

“WELL, WE HAVE WORK IN A MERE THREE HOURS, YOU KNOW… AT YOUR BAR! AND LESSER DOG HELPED ME PAINT THIS WHEN I TOLD HIM I WAS PART MUMMY…ANUBIS IS THE GOD OF MUMMIFICATION…HUMANS EVEN WORSHIPPED HIM FOR A WHILE…”

“…Ah…I did not know you were religious?...”

“UM… WELL I’M NOT... I LIKE WHAT HE SYMBOLIZES THOUGH… HE PROTECTS TOMBS, GUIDES SOULS TO AN AFTERLIFE, AND JUDGES SOULS… A DEFENDER OF THE DEAD… ”

“…that is amazing… you did a nice job with the a painting…”

“NYEH WELL I HAVE A LOT OF PRACTICE PAINTING FIGURINES.”

“… Oh, and about work…I sent out an email last night…after being sick Red’s wanted the extra hours so he took my shifts for the weekend….and I swapped your shift with Bobby’s… I... figured after that ordeal you might want to recover…”

“GRILLBY, I LOVE WORKING-”

Grillby looked serious for a second as he interrupted Papyrus, putting his arms on his hips and looking a bit stern…

“…burning out… is not good… but if you want the hours I will call Bobby...”

“NO! I LOVE WORKING BUT AFTER DOING THE LAUNDRY, I FEEL LIKE MY ARMS ARE GOING TO POP OFF…SO THANKS FOR LETTING ME OFF THE HOOK!”

“…You did the laundry!…” Grillby was a little embarrassed at the idea of Papyrus washing his stuff… he usually just dry cleaned things anyway.

“WELL, MY CLOTHES GOT SOAKED AFTER DIVING INTO THE POOL LAST NIGHT, AND YOURS WERE…AWFUL. NEVERTHELESS-I FIGURED YOU WOULD WANT SOMETHING CLEAN!”

Grillby’s outfit had gotten pretty destroyed… Sans had been low on the magic himself after last night, so Papyrus had lent Grillby some grey sweatpants and a shirt…which was a crop top with “FLAWLESS” printed on it. Thankfully Papyrus was taller than Grillby so it comfortably covered his stomach. Grillby was more worried that he would ruin Paps’ shirt- he was pretty sure the skeleton disliked the smell of smoke…

Papyrus handed Grillby his shirt and pants from yesterday, which the skeleton had tried to launder as best as he could… The charcoal from the logs had come out, but the outfit was definitely still smoky, and now were decorated with several small burn marks on the sleeves…ugh, and there was a large burn hole in his pant-cuff… and the back…and the leg… he wasn’t as good at controlling his heat level when he was that drained… another pair of dress pants ruined… Grillby tried not to frown as he held the pants up.

“UM… I DID MY BEST.”

“….Thanks… you did not have to do that…and…well…this isn’t the first outfit I’ve toasted… um can I borrow your sweatpants until i can get my own?” Grillby was hoping it would be ok…

“NO PROBLEM! YOU CAN BORROW THESE TODAY! I THINK MY FASHION SENSE SUITS YOU! WELL, I THINK MY STYLE FITS MOST MONSTERS…” Paps handed Grillby some pants…

The sweatpants in question were bright pink MTT branded workout gear. Pink and Grillby did not usually fit together, but Grillby preferred it to pants with holes in them any day.

“…thanks… I will wash them for you to get rid of my smoke smell…if the smoke smell lingers I have been told … a cup of white vinegar added to the washer works best…although I never bother myself… I could test it…”

“OOH! A HOT LAUNDRY TIP! NYEH HEH HEH! AND YOU CAN JUST HAND THEM BACK! I DO NOT MIND DOING LAUNDRY. BUT DO NOT TELL SANS… LAUNDRY IS RELAXING, BUT I AM HAPPY HE IS BEING LESS LAZY AND DOING IT NOW…ALTHOUGH HIS FOLDING METHOD IS A BIT…UNUSUAL…” Grillby wondered if Sans actually folded the clothes at all?

“ANYWAY…EVEN THOUGH THERE IS NO WORK… I CAME TO ASK IF YOU TWO WANT SOME BREAKFAST?”

“…Sure… and I bet Sans would agree…how about I help so you aren’t working alone… we can surprise Sans when he gets up…”

“EXCELLENT IDEA, SANS LOVES SURPRISES!” Papyrus shouted this fact loudly.

“…SHHH! Sans is sleeping after all…”

At this point, Sans was not actually sleeping, Paps voice always woke him up, and Catsup was meowing at him for breakfast. But he had mastered the art of fake sleeping, and by Asgore, it was a Saturday… and the sun wasn’t even fully up…Sans figured if the pair left he might actually get another 15-20 minutes…”

“TRUST ME, MY VOICE NEVER WAKES SANS UP! HE CAN SLEEP THROUGH ANYTHING!”

“…Ok, let me just get dressed…”

Papyrus left the room and tiptoed down the stairs... Grillby turned to Sans, and sensed he was awake…

“…Morning Sans…”

“hey, you can tell i’m awake grillbabe?”

“…Did you know your eye glows faintly when you sleep…?”

“uhh…paps never mentioned…”

“…Well it mostly flickers inside your skull…I can sense the magic fiery glow…”

“that’s awesome. also if you don’t mind that I haven’t washed it in a week, you can borrow my hoodie if your shirt is just _holey_ unacceptable... I’d _zip_ you home for a spare shirt, but i need to take a break from the shortcuts after last night.”

Grillby smiled at Sans and tried to look as cute as possible zipping into his hoodie- an effort entirely wasted by the fact that Sans was suddenly completely distracted by the cat...Catsup 1, Grillby 0…

“…I will head down to help Papyrus cook breakfast… but I can buy _sous_ some time if we make something tricky...…?”

“i knew you were the one for me…” sans rolled his head into the pillow and tried to get a few more minutes of peace..

******************************************************************************************************************************

“…Anything crazy you want to try?...”

“WELL I FOUND A RECIPE FOR “HASHBROWN CUPS” THEY ARE CONSIDERED A MERE ‘MODERATE’ CHALLENGE… SO I EXPECT THEM TO BE EASY…”

“…Oh, nice…I also recommend the bacon cup…they are smoky…!”

“LET’S DO A MIX! CUP THEMED BREAKFAST! NYEHEHEHEH”

Papyrus cut a few potatoes into tiny pieces and arranged them into a muffin tin, while Grillby arranged some bacon into a lattice. Grillby then used his good hand to cook the bacon and the hash browns, while Papyrus scrambled some eggs with cheese and spinach.

Grillby and Papyrus had a little extra time- Grillby’s cooking helped speed the process up considerably… so they got creative and made little garnishes with some cherry tomatoes and toothpicks…

“…Sans… still is recovering his shortcut… so tomatoes are his thing right?...”

“YES, HE CONTANTLY EATS KETCHUP, PASTA SAUCE, AND NOW THAT WE ARE ON THE SURFACE TOMATOES…HIS SHORTCUTS BURN THROUGH SO MUCH MAGIC. I THINK THAT IS WHY HE CARRIES KETCHUP AROUND ALL THE TIME…EVEN KNOWING THE REASON IT IS A LITTLE GROSS”

Grillby put his hands into Sans Hoodie, and in fact found a couple of ketchup packets…he put them on the table for Sans so he wouldn’t slowly bake them all day… Then he tried turning a cherry tomato into something pretty…at least tomatoes did not burn too easily.

Papyrus somehow made his look like a rose… Dang…sometimes Grillby underestimated the skeleton.

Grillby settled on cutting two cherry tomatoes together and sticking them with toothpicks to look like a heart for Sans… He took the less pretty practice heart and put it on his plate.

Sans slowly trudged down the stairs, freshly showered, and mostly awake. Grillby had thought it was weird that Sans showered at first, but according to Sans all the human homes came with one, no extra charge-and it was useful for getting ‘dust off your facet joints.’ Grillby just used his bathroom for storage.

“bro, I’m all for re-decorating but why is there a crack in the mirror?”

“I-UH-I TRIPPED INTO IT LAST NIGHT, I WAS SO TIRED.”

“upon _reflection_ is that really what happened?”

“IF YOU MUST KNOW I WAS ADMIRING MY LOVELY VISAGE AND FLEXED INTO IT…”

“are you ok?”

“I JUST BRUISED MY EGO. NOW LET ME TAKE A PHOTO OF OUR MASTERFUL BREAKFAST, THIS TOMATO ARTISTRY IS GOING ON THE COOLSKELETON BLOG!”

Sans wandered over to the cabinet with the cat food. The act summed Catsup who waddled over at breakneck speed.

Sans then tried to set the table, totally not getting distracted and dropping the napkins looking at sleepy dressed down Grillby. Grillbz looked super cute in Sans’ hoodie… rubbing his sleepy eyes with the sleeves…being extra careful not to let his flames singe the cuffs. Daww sleepy Grillby…Sans hoped the bartender would keep the hoodie forever.

Sans picked the napkins off the ground and placed the forks, while Papyrus impatiently brushed past Sans, mumbling about Sans being part slug, and put the food down.

Everyone got three “cups”: one bacon cup, one hash brown cup, and one regular cup of coffee… and there were extras in the middle of the table. Paps lifted the mask up slightly to eat. Sans nodded along politely as Papyrus talked incessantly about Anubis and how cool he was, and how he was neat like Sans because he judged people’s souls, and how people argued over who his parents were, and how really he used to be Lord of the Underworld…but technically he was replaced in human religion by Osiris… and how did you know that….

Sans managed to carry the conversation mostly with nodding…

Grillby zoned out and he ate the breakfast. He had almost burned the bacon from being so sleepy earlier. The coffee didn’t do much for the elemental-he burned away any caffeine that was in it…but he liked the smell, so relaxing…. Grillby felt even more sleepy after breakfast.

It was nice to take it easy for a bit. The three monsters wolfed down their meals… and the second helpings… but were satisfied… They idly chatted about work and watched a cooking show… it was going to be a lazy Saturday. Papyrus wouldn’t stop fidgeting with the mask, and Sans thought it was weird that he kept it on after coming back from getting dressed.

***************************************************************************

Even after the large breakfast an hour before, Papyrus, now in MTT brand sweatpants that matched Grillby’s- grabbed a box of cereal and starting to pour it into a bowl before sitting next to Sans on the couch.

“I AM SO HUNGRY AFTER LAST NIGHT… I WELL- I COULDN’T EVEN FINISH MY MTT GLITTERBOMBS CEREAL…”

“…Wait MTT Cereal… didn’t it get recalled… the humans say it was… not edible…and toxic…?” Grillby yawned out.

“WELL, THAT IS A LITTLE UNFAIR LABELLING ON THE HUMANS PART! IT IS ONLY INEDIBLE TO THOSE WITH DIGESTIVE SYSTEMS! AND METTATON GENEROUSLY GAVE ME A CRATE FOR CHRISTMAS! TRY THEM! THEY ARE FORTIFIED WITH VITAMINS AND CALCIUM! IT IS BASICALLY A HEALTH SNACK!” Papyrus’s eyes almost sparkled in excitement.

The tall skeleton tossed a box to Grillby, who tentatively popped a single purple sparkly-coated cereal in his mouth… To Grillby’s alarm the glitter did not ignite immediately.

Sans smashed a handful into his mouth… and immediately regretted it…he would probably have glitter stuck on his teeth all day now… also his HP might have actually taken a hit…

“GREAT, RIGHT?”

“this cereal is great bro, just like eating glue.”

“SANS!”

Grillby felt all warm and full. So naturally, he fell asleep on the couch during the MTT marathon like a baby fireling…his head sunk into Sans a bit and his arm lava-ed into the armrest. Catsup did not really like Grillby, but liked the armrest… a great cat dilemma began… Sans got some catnip and sprinkled it into Grillby’s arm…after a few minutes Catsup didn’t curl into Grillby, but seemed to find the idea of being near his arm at least more attractive…

“MAN GRILLBY IS SLEEPIER THAN YOU! IMPRESSIVE!”

“honestly, i still can’t believe you are awake after yesterday, bro.”

“I COULD NOT SLEEP…” Papyrus started to play with the jackal mask he was wearing.

“you ok bro?”

“NOT REALLY… “

“it’s about the spell from yesterday, right?”

“YEAH…CAN WE TALK ABOUT IT?”

“i’m sorry i’ve been a lousy big brother…couldn’t even stop those little jerks from picking on you”

“SANS, STOP THAT. YOU ALWAYS STOOD UP FOR ME WHEN YOU COULD…AND … THAT WAS A LONG TIME AGO…ONCE I GOT A GROWTH SPURT WELL, THAT WAS DONE…AND YOU WERE ALWAYS MY FRIEND…AND NOW… I HAVE LOTS OF FRIENDS…YOU, GRILLBY, LD, DOGGO, UNDYNE, ALPHYS, FRISK, TORIEL… I AM MAKING NEW FRIENDS EVERDAY… JUST YESTERDAY I GOT TO KNOW BUNNY A BIT MORE-WE COULD BE FRIENDS, TOO”

“then what got you bothered?”

“YOUR MEMORY WAS AWFUL.”

“bro… I am fine. honestly al and i are just good friends, and-“

“NYEH HEH HEH, YOU TWO WOULD HAVE BEEN THE NERDIEST COUPLE IN EXISTANCE…. BUT YOU KNOW THAT IS NOT THE MEMORY I AM TALKING ABOUT…”

“look bro, i’ve been through a lot-with gaster and chara.- a shit father is the least of my worries. out of all my cruddy memories- i am honestly relieved that was the one that popped out. it was the first i’ve thought about it in years, and it’s really just a blur i don’t care about…i’m sorry you had to see it.”

“I NEVER REALIZED HE WAS THAT AWFUL TO YOU…WAS HE ALWAYS…DO YOU HAVE ANY OTHER BETTER MEMORIES”

“i’m sorry bro-already told you the good ones… the time we went to the mall, i remember being excited to see santa … um… and i remember when i got a toy rocket and a trike... but to be honest the only memories i have where i can picture the old man are where he is shouting at mom or me… i honestly would rather remember her face…but well… as much as i might want to remember more it is easier to forget…”

“HE LOOKS JUST LIKE ME… I FEEL AWFUL… TO LOOK LIKE SOMEONE WHO WAS SO AWFUL TO YOU…WHO SCARED YOU… I KNOW I SHOULD NOT, BUT I FEEL A LITTLE UNCLEAN”

“bro, it’s ok… look… i got the eyes, and,” Sans thought for a second and smiled,

“you know, actually bro, you are full of it.”

“EXCUSE ME!”

“yup. you. are. full. of. it. you look nothing like him.”

“WHAT I LOOK JUST LIKE-”

“no. completely different. cause you are full of love, always smiling. and even when you don’t smile, even if on the rare occasion when you do the spooky skeleton thing- you never look angry. you are always full of love, cause you are a good monster, and the best bro I could ever have asked for…so come on show me that smile little bro!”

“SANS…” Papyrus sounded like he might tear up… “THANKS I NEEDED THAT.”

Sans and Papyrus had a big brotherly hug, both their eyes glowed happily. Sans hit his skull on the jackal nose.

“so, are you really going to start worshipping ancient human gods, or are you wearing this to cover up?” Sans bonked the jackal’s nose

“I LIKE ANUBIS! I ALSO LIKE WEARING THE MASK, EVEN IF IT ITCHES A BIT-BUT…WELL I DON’T THINK I AM RELIGIOUS…AND…YES… I WAS WEARING IT SO MAYBE I WOULDN’T SCARE YOU.”

“that’s ridiculous. You don’t scare me. and look that bone-sack doesn’t scare me.”

Papyrus took the mask off and smiled.

“huh?” Sans saw a tiny band-aid over paps eye

“paps!”

“OK- HONESTY TIME… I CRACKED THE MIRROR. AS STATED PREVIOUSLY I WAS FLEXING, HAVING FUN WITH MY NIGHTLY ROUTINE TRYING TO RELAX AFTER LAST NIGHT. BUT, IT WAS LIKE-I SAW HIM FOR A SECOND. I WAS UPSET- THAT I LOOK LIKE THAT GUY SO I HIT MY HEAD AGAINST THE MIRROR. I WAS NOT TRYRING TO HURT MYSELF, OR THE MIRROR, BUT I MISJUDGED HOW HARD I WOULD HIT IT. I JUST LIKE TO IMAGINE THE BEST IN PEOPLE- AND I DID NOT THINK OUR PARENTS WERE BAD MAYBE JUST MISGUIDED- AND WELL I GOT UPSET- BUT IT IS A TINY SCRATCH, SEE?”

Paps lifted the band aid off and truth be told it was the tiniest fleck of scratched bone…

“it’s ok bro, I know you wouldn’t do that on purpose, and- look- accidents happen. did i tell you about the time i got upset about cleaning and short cutted into the washing machine? i had lint stuck in my joints for days! just promise me that if you feel upset about it again, you come talk to me?”

“NYEH HEH… THAT MUST HAVE BEEN AWFUL…BUT SANS, AFTER OUR TALK. I DO NOT THINK IT WILL BE A RECURRING PROBLEM… BUT I PROMISE.”

“love you bro!”

“LOVE YOU TOO BROTHER!” Papyrus’s eyes creased in happiness, and he sat back, ready to really relax. The tall skeleton saw Grillby’s fire flicker a bit, and decided to give the couple a bit of alone time, leaving Sans for his bedroom.

Papyrus texted Undyne and Lesser Dog for a bit, Undyne was feeling better and trying to convince Alphys to let her out of bed, but LD asked if he wanted to go for a run -why not?

Sans had really cheered him up, and while he was a bit embarrassed about cracking the mirror- really his ego was more hurt than his head. Papyrus took Sans words to heart, hung the mask up, and took a deep breath and looked into the mirror in his room…he paused for a second, and then smiled. It was fine-relaxed Papyrus took a quick power nap before LD came by.

**************************************************************************

Sans snuggled up to Grillby who was a bit awake now.

“…So… you and Paps talked…also why do I smell like mint and…?” The fire elemental looked happy as Catsup was actually rubbing into his arm looking pretty stimulated...

“that will last another three minutes or so, but hopefully he uh _warms_ up to you. and yeah, paps is alright, and i’m alright, too.”

“…you…sure?...”  


“well, grillbz, i-i’m more worried about you. that-seeing that happen. grillby, i love you and i am here for ya.”

“…I thought you…knew already… with Karmic retribution.”

“i can’t read minds- and i just get HUD summary, not a vision or anything. i only saw that you blew his hand off cause he was attacking you…and that you were defending yourself…not…not.”

“…Not… trying to –to to soul-share…”

“yes”

“…ahh… well…now you know…I would have preferred telling you… but…well…it is just… one bad moment in my life…I... was… I was able to fight him off…but that he tried to… I was upset for a while…” Grillby still looked upset about it, his hair flickered…

“grillbz…last time you mentioned it you said it was your fault…and that you lost control…i..i…don’t know what to say…it was not your fault…and if i were you i would have blown more than a hand off…”

Grillby sighed.

“…hey, we’ve been dating for a while… can I unload a bit?…” Grillby leaned into Sans.

“absolutely.” Sans looked at Grillby directly, and held out his bony hand…which the elemental grabbed.

“…Sans…let’s talk …about past relationships…”

“um”

“…You’ve never dated anyone, right?...”

“um, i ended up going to prom with this moldsmall that couldn’t get a date either… i think her name was mold-jessa…we didn’t really uh… _stick together_ afterwards. and then i got so busy with science and timelines i just didn’t have the time or energy.”

“…Well… before the incident…I… was very…romantically adventurous… the first time I shared my soul… I was naive and excited to see what it was all about and my partner…she wanted to break up if we didn’t try getting more serious…”

Sans frowned, Grillby continued.

“…looking back I understand that was manipulative… and I regret jumping in…but those sorts of things can happen to any monster…. Sans. Relationships can be messy… We broke up…later…no hard feelings at this point….and…still… I enjoyed it… and was eager to hook up with another monster…soon found myself with a reputation …”

“there is nothing wrong with exploring relationships.”

“…no….I am not embarrassed… and even after that asshole… I am proud that I eventually bounced back…yes it is something I have to deal with from time to time…but I’ve met many good monsters… I’ve had some good relationships in the past… and some bad ones… some flings…and… and well after a bit I took a break for a while and decided I need to figure out what I wanted in a relationship….”

“what do you think is important in a relationship?” Sans hoped he was meeting Grillby’s standards.

“…Well… for me… I eventually realized I wanted to be with someone who respects well…everything…me…others…themselves… I like someone who is calmer… someone who shows respect by trying to listen and ask questions first…and would only fight as a last resort… I know some people think that is cowardly, but I believe …there is… usually… a peaceful solution…even if it is difficult...”

Grillby leaned his head into Sans lap.

“…and…I…also like that we are good friends…that you bring me flowers…that I can see being with you forever…”

Grillby then turned a bit blue in the flames,

It was Sans turn to blush…

“well, hey, don’t worry. i don’t enter relationships lightly…and i wouldn’t have kept going with you this long if i couldn’t imagine us together forever.” Sans tried to tickle under Grillby’s chin.

“and grilby, you really are brave… i admire your courage and…”

“…I hope… I am what you want…in a relationship…”

“absolutely grillbz! and i guess i always wanted someone i felt comfortable around. one of the drawbacks of being a more logic science-y type of guy is that i overthink things and i can get uncomfortable in social situations-paps is a smooth character compared to me sometimes... i love that you are so patient with me grillby. you’ve listened to my problems so many times, you look past my faults, and you don’t just brush things off-you try to help! you are so passionate about your business and it inspires me to be a little more motivated. heh, i want to go to work early now so i can come home and see you sooner. and do well at work so we can save up…”

Grillby snuggled more into Sans.

“and heh, maybe someday we can be like alphys and undyne, have a couple of little fire-monster kids.”

“…didn’t we agree on skeletons with fire heads?”

“changed my mind. would be cuter as little fire blobs…”

“…they need to look like you, too.”

“they can be blue or something. seriously the only thing they need to inherit from me is my love of puns and science.”

“…I hope they like cooking…”

“so they better be a molecular gastronomist with a sense of humor”

Grillby had slowly been inching himself more onto Sans during the conversation and had wiggled himself so his head met sans.

“so, uh, i’m not trying to _string_ you into anything, but you look really cute in that hoodie.” Sans tugged at the hoodie’s drawstring

“…I think it _hood_ look nicer on you…maybe we can get it on you somehow…” the two inched closer to each other…

**KNOCK KNOCK**


	22. In which a favorite lamp is broken...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans and Grillby get some alone time, and Undyne and Alphys come by with some big news.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so we kit 90K words... and I think their relationship is a bit more developed so... here is my take on their love life...
> 
> So the first section gets a little hot and heavy... if you want to skip it, go past the *******
> 
> But I will say that it is nothing particularly graphic... no magic skeleton...er appendages at least
> 
> We also get to see some friends...
> 
> if anyone wants to suggest monsterling names, I have a few ideas, but well, I would love to hear any suggestions <3
> 
> Thank you so much for all our support as always!

**KNOCK KNOCK**

Papyrus suddenly came barreling down the stairs… wearing his Jogboy shirt and sweatband-past the very conspicuous Sans and Grillby. If Papyrus had noticed that Grillby had thrown himself to the other side of the couch and was furiously putting his hands in the hoodie pockets, the skeleton said nothing.

Grillby and Sans were surprised to see Lesser Dog was forgoing his usual grey tunic for some gym shorts with a hole for the tail, and a matching “Jogdog” shirt.

“LD! GREAT TO SEE YOU! READY FOR THE JOG? I’M FEELING LIKE I COULD RUN A MILE, OR SIX!!!”

LD barked back and started blasting ‘Eye of the Tiger’ on his radio.

“OK LETS START WITH SOME WARM UP STRETCHES!” Paps and LD closed the door.

Sans jumped into Grillby’s lap, moving his finger to caress Grillby’s face and-

Papyrus was suddenly heard again by the window.

“I ALMOST FORGOT TO GRAB WATER. HYDRATION IS VERY IMPORTANT!” Papyrus jumped through the window and strode into the kitchen.

Papyrus suddenly remembered Sans and Grillby and turned to see Sans on the other end of the couch with his arms crossed.

“OH HOW RUDE OF ME-DO YOU TWO LAZY BONES WANT TO COME JOGGING, TOO?”

“no.”

“BUT YOU ARE JUST SITTING HERE DOING NOTHING.”

“no thanks bro, we’re good.”

“IT IS SUPER HEALTHY SANS… I KNOW YOU BARELY USE THAT TREADMILL.”

Sans was still too magic spent to shortcut, so he just grabbed Grillby’s hand and starting to march upstairs…

“hey grillby, wanna use the treadmill with me?”

“…Sounds fun…” Grillby tried not to laugh, he was blushing a bit.

Sans and Grillby made it into Sans bedroom. The two embraced.

**KNOCK KNOCK**

Sans stomped to the door.

“OH, NOW THAT I THINK OF IT CAN LD AND I JOIN YOUR COOL UPSTAIRS TREADMILL PARTY? IT WOULD DOUBLE THE FRIENDSHIP”

“absolutely not.”

“WELL, ER, IF YOU ARE GOING TO EXERCISE- HERES SOME WATER.”

“grillby can’t drink water, but, k, cya later bro.

“UH… OK… WELL DO YOU REMEMBER HOW TO TURN THE TREADMILL ON?”

“oh my god paps, stop coccyx blocking me and get out of here!”

Sans closed the door on an embarrassed Papyrus who finally got the hint and ran back outside…

“oh asgore… you’re lucky you don’t have siblings…”

“…Well my half brother…”

“right, sorry. but isn’t magmus a good century older than you…and thus too old to blunder into your love life?”

“…true… you should meet him by the way…now where were we…?”

“well, I was going to help you out of that hoodie”

“…maybe I like the hoodie after all…want to help me out of something else…if you are ok with that…?”

“yeah, as long as you help me out, too…”

“…you sure?...”

“yeah. i’m ready to try something new.”

Sans and Grillby were kissing on the skeleton’s bed… Grillby carefully helped Sans slip off his sweatpants, and Sans tentatively helped Grillby out of his. Grillby paused to politely fold them… before jumping back into Sans embrace on the mattress…

The two let their bodies touch…and after Sans pulled off his own shirt…and Grillby dropped all pretense of wearing the hoodie, the two were just separated by their boxers…Grillby wrapped his arms around Sans and let them merge into the skeleton’s back… flames danced around Sans Shoulder blades…the two kissed under the blankets. Grillby was smiling like crazy, he looked really happy, Sans wanted him to get even happier...

“this ok?”

“..heh…that is nice…”

Sans hands reached down to the flame monster’s pants gently rubbing his inner leg…Grillby reached down to return the favor…

Sans stopped his hand.

“…Sorry Sans…”

“no, it’s something i want- but um before you head down there-you realize I’m a skeleton right. i don’t exactly have the same uh, fleshy parts as some monsters- i mean i don’t think i have an sort of magic that can really make that. i can barely do the tongue with the blue magic in my head- you see i’m not sure if i can reach it down there.”

To Sans surprise Grillby let out a sigh of relief.

“…Sans… I don’t care how you are shaped… I love you…”

“well, in that case...”

Sans, looked at Grillby, and slid his pants down… he was well… shaped like a skeleton… but Grillby looked at Sans, as though he was the most amazing monster…

“…Sans… wow… you are amazing…” Grillby was blushing, and letting a few sparks off.

“you sure this is fine?”

“…Sans…I think you are gorgeous…look at all the pretty shapes that make you up…so many…” Grillby moved to Sans and kissed him all over.

“…Honestly, it is really kind of a relief actually…”

“what?”

“…I have a hard time controlling the tongue myself…and well I am a fire shaped vaguely like a man, but well, it’s just shaped fire…like, you’ve probably realized by now I don’t have organs or a defined nose or eyes or anything…so um I can make something like one if you like…but its never super defined anyway-in fact if you don’t really care about how I am shaped I can be more amorphous…”

“Grillby, just do whatever form makes you happiest!”

Grillby let out the happiest jack-o-lantern smile and shifted into a more loose form… the boxers came off…and while the overall humanoid shape was still there-the fire burned more rapidly, causing his outline to flicker and flare up… most definition lost…except for his injured hand…his back was just a stretch of flames, but he re-made hi legs and pressed into Sans, rubbing against him...

“…I…m… fiery to..day…I..c..n…do…la…va..t..oo…b..t…I…f.e.el…more…fiery…”

“mhhm Grillby you are wonderful...” Sans smiled and tooth-kissed Grillby everywhere.

Grillby smiled…

“…s.o..are you…”

“...d..o I..f.el…g…d..to.. y.. ou…?”

“yeah, i’m pretty sensitive down there, how about you?”

“…ye..ss…t..th..t…f.e..ls g..eat.!”

Grillby let his body merge heavily with Sans form, and the two brought their souls close… Sans smiled and felt pure joy as Grillby took advantage of the loose form to merge into him, fire all over his bones… Grillby smiled at the familiar cool sensation that was Sans…

Sans icy soul trying to pull Grillby’s flaming hot soul in… but they kept it controlled, each soul separated from the other by a few inches… beating in time…

The two enjoyed some time together. Eventually, they fell into a fit of snuggling…

*********************************************************************

An hour later the two were still cuddly, but mostly just goofing off.

“… and I love every bit of you…like your this bone… and your this one… and the this one…and this one part of that one…”

“…ischial spine…scapular acromion…thoracic vertebrae and spinous process…not a biologist there grillbz?” Sans kissed Grillby back.

“…look…I don’t have bones… and those ones are tricky…I mean I knew spine…but…I never was a very good student…how about this cute one on your head… the skull right…?”

“technically the whole thing is the skull… that’s the zygomatic bone…mine’s not super defined but that is what it is called.”

“…well sans… you can always help me learn…”

“i don’t expect you to know them all. i’m pretty sure paps doesn’t even know them all.”

“…c’mon Sans… I want to know…and I’ll help you learn about fire…”

“learn about fire?”

“…For example…did you know fire is a process…a chemical reaction…not an object…although I see myself as a kind of material since I can take form with the lava…but it is weird to think that I am both an object and not an object… ”

“woah. that’s super philosophical.”

THUD!

Sans heard a something hit the side of his window.

PLINK!

A slightly smaller something hit the side of the window…

Sans slipped on his t-shirt and got up…he had a few missed texts from Paps.

_QUIT BONING- ALPHYS and UNDYNE ARE COMING OVER_

And then a few minutes later

_LD AND I ARE PRETTY FAR OUT, CAN YOU LET THEM IN?_

Huh, weren’t they recovering, and even if they weren’t wouldn’t they be guarding their eggs. Sans opened his window and looked outside…

“HEY dorks! Sorry to bug you, but we need to talk to you!”

Sans saw that Undyne’s scales were still off-color and Alphys had an arm around her for support but she seemed way better than last night. They had some sort of mechanical baby stroller…

“hey, give me a minute, I’ll be right down!”

Sans and Grillby made themselves presentable… Grillby stole back Sans’ hoody.

“…hey Sansy…”

“yeah babe?”

“…one last kiss…”

Grillby gave Sans a kiss…

“…for your zygomatic bone…”

Sans smiled and practically floated down the stairs, opening the door for Alphys and Undyne.

*************************************************************************

A bleary eyed Alphys and a peaceful Undyne sat on the couch, Sans pulled up a few chairs and Grillby walked up to the stroller.

“So-so I couldn’t keep Undyne in bed… and I wanted to take these guys to get a check up immediately…so I spent last night building a device that lets us carry the eggs around… they are little incubators…I like it more than keeping them in that gross bathtub.”

“our bathtub is DISGUSTING!” Undyne chimed in.

Sans, Papyrus, and Grillby looked more closely at the kart, it was more like a three seat baby stroller that had been welded together and given a hood with sheet metal that looked rather like spare Mettaton parts. It kind of resembled a wheeled spaceship, except the little windows on the side were filled with water, and instead of astronauts there were three little monsterlings inside eggs.

The incubators were pumped with peachy colored pH-ed water… The little monsters inside the eggs were getting bigger, gamboling around inside their jelly shells, and seemed to enjoy the movement of the stroller Alphys had attached a soul monitor display to the side, and Sans smiled as he noticed all three were glowing brightly... Alphys wheeled the stroller back and forth and watched as their little soul’s shot off happiness sparks.

“Importantly, this kart means Undyne doesn’t have to circle them to protect them f-from…uh predators…”

Undyne glared though the front window at a squirrel that had had the audacity to come within ten feet of her babies while they were waiting.

“alphys you are really egg-cellent!”

Alphys snickered,

“I-I only wish I had thought of it sooner.”

“I would have insisted they needed to stay in the pool… don’t worry Alphys.” Undyne bowed her head.

“…this is amazing Alphys…but shouldn’t you be resting….Queen Toriel said…Undyne needed to.”

“Don’t worry Grillby, I slept until noon, and then Toriel checked on me… She gave me a quick healing pulse, and the Royal seal of approval to walk around as long as I don’t overexert myself...she even gave me the clear for the skeleton dance tonight.”

“…Woah…we’re still doing that…tonight…?”

“Why not? But only if you’re up for it. Frisk is apparently over the moon to do it, but I mean we can always re-schedule.”

Grillby looked at Sans…

“…I’m… up for it…”

“sure, as long as paps has the energy…” Sans was almost certain paps would have the energy.

“Anyway, Alphys took the little guys to a healer, and well once I knew they were all clear I just thought it was important to come talk to you and thank you again…” Undyne looked somber.

“And-and we feel awful about what you guys had to go through to help us… we can’t thank you enough…”

Papyrus, Lesser Dog, Bunny, and Ugly entered the house.

“HEY UNDYNE, THESE TWO WANTED TO COME BY, TOO.”

“Hey cousin. Glad to see you’ve got some red in your gills again!”

“Hey everybunny! Do you need a spot of healing Undyne, darling?” Bunny seemed recovered.

“Heh, thanks, and no…honestly I’m a bit hopped up on a potion Tori gave me…”

“we-well since you guys are here, too… Undyne and I should say something to everyone…” Alphys opened up a compartment in the stroller. Undyne took out a group of small presents that had been…wrapped.

“It-its not much, but we want to thank you all. That spell was nasty, and-and you-you shared those memories- to-to help us…” Alphys was trying not to tear up.

Undyne spoke up, too “We, mean to say, we cannot express how much you guys mean to us… I.. and most of the clutch would be dust without everyone’s help. So we got you something as a start to say thanks!”

“well, you guys, don’t have to feel bad it was a sudden storm and you were just following a natural urge-”

“Seriously, you hate presents or something Sans? Let us give you sweet loot!” Undyne was determined…

Alphys handed each person their gift…they even had one for LD. Some were wrapped neatly in origami paper, complete with little cranes on the top, Grillby smiled at the little red box with a neatly folded crane. The rest… looked like the wrapping paper had fought the box and lost… Undyne handed Sans one such box…

“o-ok here we go, you can see both Undyne and I wrapped them-I –I hope you like what is inside!”

Everyone started to slowly and carefully unwrap the dainty and not so dainty little present boxes. Sans gently brushed off the three scraps of wrapping paper that remained stuck to the globs of tape pasted onto the box…

“YOU HAVE TO OPEN IT WITH PASSION EVERYONE!” Undyne shouted.

Papyrus immediately ripped the top of the box off, which Undyne cheered on. He reached his hand inside and pulled out a glittering orange sweetie.

“OOH!”

“Th-they are home made… I have been trying to learn how to cook more things, but also to make candy… I figure it would be a tr-treat for the monsterlings…bu-but they shouldn’t get sweets right away anyway…”

Grillby who neatly folded the paper up, and then munched it up, picked up a tiny candy with a plastic wrapper…it looks like Alphys had actually tried to make little circle candies with a heart shape inside… he popped it into his mouth… the sweet taste of sugar and cinnamon flavor was delicious! And Grillby loved smelling like cinnamon… his dad always used to make cinnamon pie when he was younger.

“THIS IS AMAZING ALPHYS! Papyrus had popped an orange flavored lollipop in his mouth.

“…Yes…Sugar work…is so difficult… I am awful at it…can never get the details…”

“We-well it helps that I-I’m cold blooded…”

Sans’ box had a lot of caramels in them… Alphys had remembered he like them. The skeleton tried a homemade caramel candy… his eyes lit up with happiness…

“Sweet deal cousin, thanks for remembering my diet, I love seaweed snacks!” Ugly spoke up, and proceeded to grab a huge handful of seaweed snacks and munch on them contentedly. He had been telling anyone who would listen that he was on a diet, lately so Grillby wasn’t sure how Undyne could forget.

“C-careful with the munching Caspian! There-there’s a surprise at the bottom!”

Bunny carefully stuck her hand into the box, and slipped out a leather strapped necklace… with a beautiful pink seashell on it…”

“Everyone should have a necklace.”

“OOH HOW FASHIONABLE FORWARD FOR THE SUMMER!” Papyrus pulled out a beautiful auger shell and immediately put it on. Then helped LD tie his on a little olive shell.

“We-well it’s not just a necklace.” Alphys cleared her throat.

“R-right…so you guys know my family doesn’t r-really have an-any magic…”

“ugh, yeah, I know what that’s like.” Ugly wasn’t particularly magical either. He could only throw a single large bubble during combat… and it was too slow to ever be useful.

“w-well, in my family, we like to give out charms…they-they can hold someone else’s spell inside them… for later. O-once when I was just a little lizard, I got separated from my-my mom in the city. But she had put a firework type spell in a necklace for me, and well mom charged through the crowd to find me…”

Sans tried to imagine Carvata rushing through the city, barreling through other monsters to reunite with Alphys. He hoped he would never be on her bad side. Alphys continued.

“I-I told Undyne about my family’s tradition when we first started –da-dating and she made some shield ones for the kids…and well for everyone. We were going to wait to give them out at the hatching-but-well- we r-really want to thank everyone”

“I found the shells by diving into the ocean! We tried to pick one for-everyone’s style.”

“Ooh! Its so pretty. And you guys did not have to, but well thanks you two! What is this shell called?”

“Bunny, yours is a true tulip shell…its one of my favorites actually…” Undyne looked a bit embarrassed. Bunny’s shell was a smooth pink shell, about the size of two quarters.

“So the shells each have a single shield spell from me, so if you ever are in a situation where you need a small shield… break the shell, but keep in mind it will only last about five minutes max…”

“…oh… but it is so pretty…” Grillby looked at the cute orange, purple, white scalloped shell, delicately holding it in his fiery fingers...

“…and Sans, look ours match….” Grillby’s flame danced at the discovery.

“Look, if it breaks, I’ll get you another one…I’d rather you stay safe than worry about it. You two got calico scallops, they kind of reminded me of fire…with their wavy little lines... And more importantly, they are from the same scallop, so they are linked! Meaning if one of you breaks it, the partner shell will break, too. It has a lot of uses, all the ones I’m giving the kids are definitely gonna be linked to me or Alphys”

“oh wow, thanks undyne, these are ex-shell-ent!” Sans thought this was really sweet… and the idea of Grillby having a little shield… well he wouldn’t complain.

“One more thing” Undyne turned to Alphys, who nodded before continuing.

“When we went to the Healer, they had some important news…”

“T-the eggs are well, they look like they are mostly fi-fish monster-so they are developing quickly! Despite the incident-they are going to hatch on Wednesday night…if nothing goes wrong. Normally, dinosaur monsters in particular like to keep this to just monsters that the kids will see as family, since we have a special custom...”

“SPECIAL CUSTOM?”

“We-well the first monster that the monsterling approaches that isn’t their parents, are chosen to be the monsterlings Soul Parent… its like a godparent…you are expected to be a guiding part of their lives…you guys can come to the hatching, and stand back for the Soul Parent ceremony… but well we would be honored if you considered it…and we would like to invite you all to come to the hatching.”

“woah, Undyne and Alphys, are you sure?” Bunny seemed a bit shy about the idea…

“Bun, listen, you fought so hard to keep the eggs alive, you all did…we would be honored for you to just come.”

“WOWIE… UNDYNE, ALPHYS…WOW…” Papyrus just went and gave them both one of his lift-ip hugs.

Everyone went and joined in…

“LOOK, you’re just coming to the hatching, we’re not all getting married or anything you dorks!” Undyne tried to protest but succumbed to the hug pile with a smile.

It was a big deal to get invited to a Monsterling hatching…

*********************************************************************

Lesser Dog headed home with Ugly and Bunny, but not until he gave each egg a symbolic good luck nuzzle through the tank.

 

“you three stay healthy for Uncle Caspy and Aunty Bun ok?” Ugly smiled at the tanks.

 

“Aunty Bun!”

 

“Hey, it could happen.”

 

The three walked out.

 

Toriel and Frisk were coming over with dinner, some sort of snail and seaweed casserole… Papyrus tried to stealthily run to the backyard with a box…

Undyne and Alphys were starting to get a bit mothery…telling Sans and Grillby about how special each egg was...

 

“Little orange… I can tell they are gonna take after me! They are already trying to smash out of their egg! They have a nice shine to their teeth! Don’t know if they will stay that color though….”

 

“L-Little glowy yellow… I think they have a head spike! And-and g-greeny is doing allright, too, but a little slower to develop. They seem shy…”

Grillby put his had to the tank… the little green egg had a tiny monster inside it… the jelly coat was thick and the monsterling was curled up…prevented a clear picture, but Grillby was relieved to see some sort of movement… he thought he saw a tail flicker…

 

“…the little green one has a tail?...”

 

“W-well they all do, at the moment, but yes, greeny’s is longest… although they could lose it…so we don’t know yet. T-tails are pretty handy for holding things-and balance-you know, so-so I hope at least one gets to keep theirs…”

 

“Although…if they are going to be good swimmers they need to pick either a tail or legs… not both!” Undyne hoped she could teach them to swim.

 

“y-yeah…I’m not exactly a water nymph…kind of awful at swimming until Undyne t-taught me.”

 

“well, you know me, i don’t really float, so i just wade…”

 

“…Wait…can Papyrus float or swim… how was he a lifeguard?...”

 

“…He’s so tall, he just walks mostly…i mean we can’t exactly drown, so the humans thought it was great…”

 

“…I am pretty good at wading…”

 

Everyone turned to look at Grillby in disbelief…

 

“…Ever been to a lava pool? …They are really great for back pain…” Grillby smiled mischievously.

 

“so have you decided to name the little tykes? Or gonna stick with orange, green, and yellow?”

 

“UGH my mother won’t stop suggesting names from obscure relatives…like and kid of mine is gonna be named Posseidessa or Trituna- BLEH”

 

“M-my dad keeps telling me to combine our names…it got popular after Asgore and Toriel did it, but well Alphyne…Unphys….and then what… there’s three of them!”

 

“aldyne? undalph? dynephys? uh forget i said anything…those are all awful.”

 

“D-Don’t worry Sans, Aldyne was at least a 6/10 on the good name to bad name ratio scale.”

 

“Don’t worry you two, We MIGHT have a few actual ideas… but we want to see the monsterlings first, see who their Soul Parent is, figure out their personality a tiny bit-you know, we don’t want to get attached to a name that wont fit at all.” Undyne smiled and put her hand to the incubator…

****************************************

Sans tried to go into the backyard to see what Papyrus was doing… But got his soul weighed down for the trouble,

 

“NO PEAKING SANS… THE SECRET SKELETON DATING RITUAL AREA IS UNDER TIGHT SECURITY CONSTRUCTION! NO BROTHERS OR FIRE MONSTER DATES ARE AUTHORIZED CLEARANCE!”

 

“what about fish-monsters?”

 

“AS LONG AS YOU AREN’T SANS OR DATING SANS, COME ON BACK!”

 

“NOT a problem!” Undyne charged to the backyard, only to whoop with excitement.

 

“ALPHYS come on, bring the kids, you’ve gotta see this, it is BRUTAL!”

 

Alphys apologetically patted Sans and Grillby on the shoulder and stepped outside with the stroller.

 

Grillby and Sans were getting nervous… they practiced their dance-moves a bit.

 

A giant crash was heard outside, and then a small detonation.

 

“WOOH! You are gonna get them good!”

 

“…Sans…what part … of the skeleton dating ritual involved explosions again…?”

 

“uhh paps...might be spicing the ritual up a bit. he gets excited about these sorts of things.”

 

A second crash was heard…

 

Grillby and Sans stalwartly continued on with the practice dance…one..two…one… two…until Grillby bumped into a lamp….

 

“…Sorry Sans… I hope that wasn’t your favorite lighting device… I just am a little nervous…”

 

“don’t worry about the lamp, we found it out in he middle of the woods, believe it or not. kind of wanted a nicer one anyway.” Sans used a bit of magic to push the broken glass pile to the side.

 

“and don’t be nervous, you were great the last couple times we practices, you really just have to watch out for me and my inability to jump.”

 

Toriel and Frisk arrived eventually… and they showed off a practice part of their tango. Frisk tackled into both of them with a hug after they showed off a twirl looking excited about their dance. Frisk then noticed the broken lamp and looked a bit sad.

 

“oh right, sorry kiddo… but you are outgrowing that one anyway, had to get a taller human shaped lamp now that you’re getting so big!”

 

Right on cue Toriel looked up for some mothering,

 

“Oh Yes, Frisk has been shooting up dramatically! They grew a whole inch in the last month! I think if they keep eating their vegetables and snail pies they could grow another inch.”

 

Frisk stuck out their tongue at the mention of snails, but they were filled with Determination… they would eat every snail pie until they grew as tall as Papyrus!

Frisk ran to go tell the tall skeleton, bringing their school backpack-which looked like it had something not related to homework in it.

 

A mechanical whirring sound could be heard in their backyard… and a shot of electricity!

 

While the other finished up in the backyard, Toriel put her snail casserole in the oven to heat, Sans set the table, and Grillby decided to calm his nerves by making some fries…


	23. In which there are puzzles, japes, and challenges

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans and Grillby survive Papyrus' modified Skeleton dating traditions...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, sorry this one took a little longer than normal! I had a hard time writing this week with work. I hope you enjoy Papyrus' challenge as much as I did...

Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys, and Frisk were going to town on whatever was being constructed outside, and more mysterious noises could be heard.

 

Grillby could not stand fretting around, so after the fries he made corndogs from Sans stash of frozen dogs, giving them all little cat ears with Sans’ help. Grillby’s ability to cook things quickly meant that this process did not take nearly as long as the elemental would have liked for a distraction.

 

So he moved on to carefully constructing milkshakes, which slowed him down a bit… as he had to carefully avoid melting the ice cream… what was Papyrus planning? It was nerve-racking… time to keep stress-cooking…

 

Sans noticed Grillby seemed a bit worried… The elemental might cook everything in his fridge for the next month if he did not stop the guy…

 

Sans gently lifted what looked like a packet of hamburger buns out of Grillby’s hands with his blue magic.

 

“hey, grillbz, you look pretty _fried._ but thanks to that nice breakfast you made earlier and a bit of rest, i’ve got enough magic for a quick shortcut to your place, if you want to grab anything.

 

“…huh…” Grillby had just realized that the buns were gone. Sans words then registered,

 

“Oh do we have time…?”

 

Toriel pushed her reading glasses up the bridge of her nose. She was patiently knitting while her casserole baked,

 

“Do not worry child, the casserole has another forty minutes, so you have at least that long. Besides if you keep cooking no one will have room for m super snail surprise! Rest up, and get ready.” Toriel smiled.

 

“…Ahhh…sorry… your…ma-Toriel… I should stop…”

 

“c’mon grillbz, my bro wont be done in the next couple minutes. let’s cassa-role on out!” Sans had grabbed a small bag from his room.

 

Grillby happily grabbed Sans’ hand and the pair jumped into Grillby’s bar.

 

Grillby was relieved to see the bar was doing well, plenty of happy customers were having a quiet drink or a small meal. Red seemed to be having a pretty chill time up front, and Grillby was happy to see the humans were letting Violet be with him again.

 

The two went upstairs to Grillby’s small apartment.

 

 

Grillby happily went into his bedroom. He was ready to wear anything that wasn’t a crop top. Ah, beautiful clean clothes…he was going to keep stealing Sans’ hoodie though.

 

Sans had left his tux hanging up in Grillby’s closet from their practice tango last week. Sans thought he looked kind of stiff in the thing, but well, Grillby seemed to like it…

 

“you know i promised i would dress up if you did, i don’t want to _tie_ you to it, _but-ton_ you still up for the challenge?”

 

Grillby’s flame rose high and flickered!

 

“…Yes!... I have just the thing…!”

 

Seeing Grillby so happy, Sans only felt a tinge of reluctance to put on his tux. Grillby had given the suit a quick dry clean, and the mothball smell was miraculously mostly dissipated. Sans started to tie the bowtie on…ugh he could do this…

 

Grillby took the opportunity to run to the kitchen… he had prepared for this…

 

“…I made this for you….I… tried to make this look nice…”

 

Grillby walked up to Sans- whose bowtie seemed to have gotten hopelessly knotted- on the bed. The fire monster kneeled and gave Sans one of his own black bowties, then he pinned a silk sunflower he had wrapped with some ribbon onto Sans’ vest pocket as an impromptu boutonniere.

 

Sans blushed a bit.

 

“…Want to go to prom…?”

 

“heh, are you kidding me, this is better than prom. that’s really sweet grillbz. i got you something, too.”

 

Sans handed Grillby the shopping bag, which had a shirt in it.

 

“…Sans this is adorable… they look a little like you, but somehow even tinier…?”

 

“heh paps said that it looked like me, too”

 

It was a black t-shirt with a round cartoony skull head smiling rather cutely. The skull had little pink hearts in a crossbones pattern instead of bones.

Grillby immediately threw it on and hugged Sans.

 

“yeah, i wanted to get you one where the guy’s face didn’t look like they were in extreme pain or had a crack or something. sorry i didn’t give it to you this morning, but well, i wanted to surprise ya.”

 

Grillby switched into his rave gear, settling on the crazy spiked black pants, the new t-shirt, and a spiked collar that LD would be proud of. Instead of a leather jacket, Grillby just opted for Sans’ hoodie.

 

Grillby smiled as Sans helped him shape his hair into a Mohawk again-

 

“…Ok… one last cool trick…before we head back…” Grillby opened his bedside drawer and rummaged under several hipflasks.

 

“grillbabe, how many of those things do you have?”

 

“…usually five in whatever I wear…several in the kitchen, and a few in the car…do not worry Sans…Mother… says I am overly cautious… but well... fire-scout motto...always be prepared…now hopefully this will last a few hours…”

 

Grillby took out a bag with a picture of a dying cartoon daisy on the label… Sans was happy to think it looked a bit like Flowey. Grillby opened the bag and grabbed a handful of blue crystals… and carefully poured it into his flame hair.

 

“…Before you worry… it is Copper Sulfate… think of it like hair dye… It will not last long… maybe an hour or two thanks to the magic of how I burn it…”

 

Grillby’s hair turned a dark green.

 

“Grillby that is really hot!”

 

 

**********************************************************************

 

 

The two headed back for dinner. Toriel’s casserole was cooling, and the former queen seemed to be helping Frisk on the couch… Frisk saw their outfits and immediately wiggled with excitement, letting them know they looked great.

 

“Child, you have such a nice mane, but we are going to need a few more bobby pins, so try not to wiggle so much…” Toriel was gently tucking Frisk’s hair into a bun.

 

Sans and Grillby were not the only pair that had dressed up…

 

Frisk was dressed as a ballerina, complete with a pink tutu, ballet slippers, and their hair was being carefully tied into a bun, the kid had pretty long hair, but it was still short enough that the process required a good 30 bobby pins… if Frisk had dressed up that means…

 

Papyrus strode down the stairs posing on every step, dressed as a danseur.

 

The tall skeleton was donning black ballet pants and…wow. A gold colored fitted dance top, vested with corseted ties and the puffiest most extravagant bell arms Grillby had ever seen.

 

It was a magnificent ballet outfit… and to top it all off, he had a wig on…Sans had no idea what form of magic Papyrus was using to keep it on his head… but the long flowing blond wig made Papyrus look like a swashbuckler on the cover of a corny romance novel.

 

Any dashing hero effect was rather ruined as Papyrus saw the pair and started nyeh-heh-heh-ing at them.

 

“looks like you mane-aged to get a cool outfit!”

 

Papyrus grinned and flipped his hair back,

 

“YES, YOU TWO, WILL NOT BE ABLE TO COMPETE WITH FRISK AND MY AMAZING OUTIFT SYNERGY TECHNIQUE. IN FACT, GRILLBY, I SEE YOU ARE SUPER GREEN WITH ENVY! IT LOOKS GREAT THOUGH!!!”

 

“…uh tha-”

 

 

“NYEH! HEH! HEH!!! AND DO NOT EVEN TRY TO ASK ME ABOUT THE SUPRER SECRET DATING RITUAL COMPONENT THAT I HAVE ADDED BROTHER!” Papyrus rolled his eyes and wiggled his eyebrows in happiness as he pontificated.

 

“ok, bro…”

 

 

“THEN I WILL JUST TELL YOU, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO GET PAST THE GREAT PAPYRUS ULTIMATE SKELETON AND MUMMY TEST! NYEH HEH HEH HEH!”

 

 

“i’m totally _puzzled_ about what it could be bro.”

 

“WHO SAID ANYTHING ABOUT PUZZLES NYEH.. HEH… HEH?” Papyrus smiled and tried to look crafty, a lock of blonde hair fell into his face…

 

Sans felt the sinking feeling in his magical stomach that meant that there was some sort of jape, puzzle, or high jinks in his near future.

 

*****************************************************************************

Undyne and Alphys came in from outside, Alphys was wearing her favorite polka dotted dress, and Undyne was decked out in jeans, a leather jacket…and her battle helmet.

 

“Undyne! Dear, is that going to be too heavy for you right now?” Toriel gave Undyne a stern look.

 

“Don’t worry Lady T! I am just wearing it before the dance battle to intimidate my opponents! Alphys is gonna wear it for the real BATTLE- er dating tradition.”

 

Grillby was definitely intimidated… that helmet looked freaky, with its one glowy eye, and the jagged teeth… actually how was Undyne going to eat with that on?

 

“y-eah! I’m gonna strike fear into your hearts!” Alphys tried to look intimidating, she pumped her fist into the air in a rather Undyne like motion… maybe it could work.

 

"Grillby, you look sick!"

 

Undyne approved of Grillby's getup.

 

“OK, dears, I think it is time we had dinner. I made some snail casserole, and Grillby made sides…”

 

Papyrus sat next to Grillby, who watched in horror as one of his cute corndog cats disappeared into Undyne’s metal mechanical tangle of terrifying teeth.

 

Grillby turned to the Skeleton instead who was a bit less scary in his blonde wig

 

“….Want some fries…”

 

“NYEH HEH HEH…BRIBERY WILL NOT WORK GRILLBY! I WILL NOT TELL YOU THE TRIALS THAT LIE AHEAD”

 

“…um… I also made milkshakes….” Grillby got up and pulled a milkshake out of the fridge. He had-in fact-made Papyrus’ favorite… a vanilla malt milkshake with little rainbow jimmies, whipped cream and a cherry on top…

 

Papyrus paused.

 

“Don’t give in Paps!” Undyne pumped her fist!

 

Frisk made a very determined face at the skeleton.

 

“…with a cherry…”

 

“NO I CANNOT! AND GRILLBY I AM DISSAPOINTED IN YOU FOR TRYING TO BRIBE ME…”

 

“…not bribery… I just made one for everyone…”

 

“OK, WELL THEN YES, PLEASE. I WOULD LOVE A NOT-BRIBERY MILKSHAKE.”

 

“me TOO!”

 

Frisk was particularly grateful for the fries and shake, and if Grillby bribed anyone it was them.

 

Eventually, as the sun began to sink, everyone finished their food, and it was time to begin…

 

***************************************************************

 

 

“OK, EVERYONE READY?… NYEH HEH HEH! THEN WE WILL BEGIN THE DATING RITUAL!”

 

Papyrus ceremoniously opened the door to the backyard… to reveal a giant sheet of tarp hanging over a platform… There was also a judging table, where Toriel and the Eggs went to rest.

 

“BEFORE WE GET TO THE SURPRISE, OTHER RITUALS FIRST! LADY TORIEL PLEASE EXPLAIN”

 

“Ok, dears, tonight I will be judging the dancing ritual for everyone. The first skeleton tradition is to trade a bone with your partner… honestly this is impossible for all partners, so instead we will have everyone swap something important for the dance… We decided that since Papyrus has an extra challenge, it would be best to just do a single trade at the start…. Keep in mind you are trying to both look spooky and be able to dance”

 

“OK THEN, I AM GOING TO TRY AN KEEP THIS TRADITIONAL BY READING THE CEREMONIAL WRITING. TRY TO KEEP IN SPIRIT WITH AND SAY SOMETHING MEANINGFUL BEFORE TRADING ITEMS… REMEMBER IF YOU DO NOT TRY, YOU WILL FAIL THE TRIALS!” Papyrus glowed his eye solemnly and pulled out a piece of paper from his bell sleeve…

 

Grillby looked nervous again…how serious was this going to be….

 

“REMEMBER SKELEBRETHREN- AS YOU AND YOUR PARTNER FALL IN BATTLE… SOME BONES MAY SHATTER, BUT YOU WILL BE REBORN BY ZHURG… MADE WHOLE WITH YOUR BRETHREN IN A ENDLESS CYCLE OF DEATH AND LIFE…OK TRADE BONES NOW”

 

Sans tried not to snort…

 

Frisk re-enacted dramatically exploding in battle, then pretended to die in Papyrus’ arms and come back to life as a skeleton. Sans especially liked how Frisk tried to look like Papyrus at he end by posing.

 

“FRISK, THAT WAS SO MOVING!”

 

Frisk handed Papyrus their favorite and nastiest band-aid… Papyrus cringed, but dutifully let Frisk stick it on their skull. Toriel noted on her paper that spookiness increased slightly for Papyrus. The tall skeleton tried to look at the band-aid above his eyes and cringed.

 

“FRISK! IF YOU WEAR MY ARMOR YOU WILL NOT FALL IN BATTLE!”

 

Papyrus gave Frisk his basketball pauldrons, which Frisk slipped on and incorporated into their ballet outfit. They seemed to fit fine, but Frisk could not fully lower their arms anymore.

 

“ALRIGHT Alphys! We will fight together forever! YEAH!!!!”

 

Alphys got Undyne’s crazy helmet, causing her head to lower a bit more than normal. Alphys was now an armored dinosaur and looked surprisingly intimidating… Toriel looked happy, she scribbled something into her notes.

 

“Uh-uh Undyne here… we can uh, let our eternal bonds grow with this symbol of our love…”

 

Alphys gave Undyne a lab coat… which was way too short… Undyne could not get her arms in… Undyne looked worried.

 

“Dears, maybe pick something else?”

 

“Uh-uh I mean Undyne, let me give you these heels to uh smite our foes with?”

 

Alphys reluctantly gave Undyne the polka dot heels she was wearing, the heels were not particularly high, but Undyne would have preferred her boots… the fish monster wobbled slightly, but held upright and gave a stomp in one of them.

 

Papyrus nodded his head, approvingly.

 

“SO MOVING!”

 

Papyrus looked expectantly at Sans and Grillby…

 

“…so Sans… want to…um die together…and uh…like a phoenix… be reborn… with this flame?”

 

“sure why not.”

 

Papyrus frowned a bit… 

 

“uh, i mean: grillbz, this will help you get _a-head_ in a fight!”

 

“A PUN SANS!!!!” Papyrus facepalmed.

 

Grillby and Sans had practiced this…Sans tossed his head into Grillby and a skeleton head was now bathed in a fiery Mohawk… Grillby carefully lit the area where Sans’ head should be with a magical red fire… Papyrus suddenly looked at them in awe...

 

“Everyone looks great.” Grillby spoke in his low elegant skeletal voice…

 

“ooh S-Sans and G-Grillby, that’s pretty sp-spooky!” Alphys was pretty impressed.

 

“Are you all right like that Sans? Toriel looked slightly concerned

 

“…yeah..just can’t doOo…a lot…of magic…like this…”

 

Papyrus smiled,

 

“EXCELLENT BROTHER… FOR THE NEXT PART WE ARE ALL FORBIDDEN FROM USING MAGIC AS...”

 

Papyrus pulled out the paper again to read it,

 

“AS ZHURG WOULD SMITE US DOWN FOR IT!” Papyrus tucked the paper away again.

 

“WONDERFUL! I HOPE WE NEVER MEET HIM! NOW TO BEGIN TRADITION NUMBER TWO!”

 

Papyrus strutted to the covered platform, and with a Whoosh!, threw off the tarp to reveal a huge multicolored platform stage! There were pink, red, orange, yellow, blue, purple, cyan, and plaid tiles! Papyrus pressed a button and a beeping noise could be heard the floor shifted… it looked like it would keep shifting on a timer.

 

“YES, TREMBLE IN FEAR AS THE HORRIFYING CITRUS SCENTS FILL THE AIR!”

 

Lemon and orange scents filled the air…

 

Sans knew what it was… he gulped… there were even plaid ones… Paps had brought all the stops….poor Grillby must be super nervous….

 

“…Oh Papyrus is that a ….Many….Colored…Plate Puzzle…? My dad would love that…”

 

Papyrus’ eye’s bulged a bit… he had been hoping to surprise Grillby… Papyrus puffed his chest out and recovered.

 

“UH… NYEH HEH HEH…WELL…CLOSE… BUT WRONG!” Papyrus posed in triumph.

 

“IT IS A MODIFIED MULTICOLORED TILE PUZZLE! I CAN SEE THAT I HAVE TOTALLY CAUGHT YOU BOTH BY SURPRISE!”

 

Grillby and Sans did their best to look shocked and surprised that Papyrus had included a puzzle in the dating ritual.

 

“AS MUMMIES LIKES TO CREATE ELABORATE TRAPS FOR THEIR FAMILIES DATES, I THOUGHT IT WAS APPROPRIATE. AND THAT IT WOULD MAKE THE PERFECT DANCE FLOOR!”

 

“So how does the puzzle work?”

 

Papyrus took a deep breath.

 

“FIRST, OFF I WANT YOU TO BE AWARE THAT THIS IS A DANGEROUS MUMMY CHALLENGE… DANGEROUS IN THAT IF YOU NOT DO WELL IT COULD BE EMBARRASSING… BUT IT WILL NOT HARM YOU!”

 

Frisk hopped onto the dance floor and ran around it in circles. The tiles lit up, a few spun Frisk around, and a few looked slippery, but Frisk seemed unharmed, except that they now smelled like lemons.

 

“NYEH HEH HEH! NOW…FOR THE FIRST PORTION OF THE SKELETON DANCE, THE GROUP CHOREOGRAPHY PART, THE TILES WILL OCCASIONALLY SWAP POSITIONS TO THE BEAT! DIFFERENT TILES GIVE YOU DIFFERENT POINTS. SO TRY TO STAY ON TARGET WITH THE STEPS! IF YOU PRACTICED THE CHOREOGRAPHY YOU SHOULD NEVER GET A BAD TILE, ONLY MAXIMUM COMBOS!”

 

“A-And I helped Papyrus add a scoreboard!”

 

A little electric scoreboard was connected to the edge of the dance floor by a pole. Little pixel heads displayed that everyone had zero points, except Frisk, whose points fluctuated wildly as they danced around the floor.

 

“ALPHYS SCOREBOARD WAS AN EXCELLENT ADDITION! NOW LISTEN CAREFULLY OR YOU COULD FAIL THE MUMMY DANCE CHALLENGE!”

 

Everyone listened. Alphys got out a lab notebook and a pen. Sans crossed his bony fingers and hoped it wasn’t too different from last time… he had the speech memorized from all the runs…

 

“YELLOW TILES ARE SLIGHTLY ELECTRIC, THEY WILL LIGHTLY ZAP YOU INTO AN ADJACENT SQUARE IF YOU STAY ON THEM FOR MORE THAN TWO SECONDS. ALSO, THEY REWARD YOU IF YOU STAY ON BEAT+ 3 POINTS FOR SUCCESSFUL USE! GREEN TILES WILL SPIN YOU IN A CIRCLE BUT GIVE YOU +3 POINTS! ORANGE TILES ARE ORANGE SCENTED! YOU WILL SMELL GREAT AND GET AN ADDITIONAL +1 POINTS PER TILE UNTIL YOU HIT A LEMON SQUARE! PURPLE TILES ARE BOTH SLIPPERY AND SCENTED LIKE LEMONS, WHICH IS HORRIFYING! YOU GET -5 AND AN ADDITIONAL -20 IF YOU SMELL LIKE LEMONS AT THE END.”

 

“…but…i like lemons broOo…!”

 

“NYEH HEH HEH! AS EXPECTED FROM A WEIRD OLDER BROTHER…ANYWAY RED TILES ARE SLIGHTLY WARM! THEY ARE -1 POINT TO STEP INTO UNLESS YOU ARE GRILLBY AND SANS, BUT REMOVE LEMON SMELLS! BLUE TILES ARE SLIGHTLY DAMP TIMES, YOU CAN WALK THROUGH THEM TO REMOVE LEMON SMELLS, UNLESS YOU ARE GRILLBY OR SANS, IN WHICH CASE IT IS -1 POINT! PINK TILES DO NOTHING, AND ARE SAFE TO STEP ON. CYAN TILES MOVE YOU TO ANOTHER CYAN TILE, WHICH IS DISORIENTING! FINALLY PLAID TILES ARE STYLE TILES! YOU DOUBLE YOUR SCORE EVERY TIME YOU STEP ON ONE…BUT YOU USUALLY NEED TO PULL OFF A TRICKY MANEUVER TO HIT THEM!”

 

Dangit, Sans realized it was a bit different from before…Everyone who wasn’t Papyrus looked extremely confused. Alphys and Undyne were staring at Alphys rushed notes. The two whispered... Alphys had a strategy…

 

“THE POINT IS THAT IN ADDITION TO TORIEL’S JUDGING OF YOUR STYLE, THE PUZZLE WILL GIVE YOU EXTRA POINTS. THE COUPLE WITH THE MOST POINTS GETS AN ADVANTAGE DURING THEIR DANCE!  THE PUZZLE WILL END, WHEN THE FLOOR CHANGES TO ALL PINK! REMEMBER DO WELL TO HONOR THE MUMMIES THAT HAVE…”

 

Grillby nodded at Sans as Papyrus started to go into Anubis again... They could do this! Grillby knew that if he could impress Papyrus with both dancing at puzzle skills at the same time, the skeleton would declare he passed the dating ritual…

 

**************************************************************************

 

Toriel got comfortable at the judging table, she had her pen and paper ready, and was ready to start the music and puzzle, already taking detailed notes. The partners took to the glowy pink dance floor and the music began!

 

The dance was simple: ring around in a circle three times, then one partner from each group would jump into the middle to form a smaller ring. If you were in the inside ring you rotated right, if you were in the outside ring you rotated left. After three circle rotations, everyone paused to “rattle bones” and then reform the larger circle. Repeat to faster music! Grillby and Sans had practiced it, but hadn’t realized they would have to do it so well.

 

The floor puzzle started easily enough… the floor lit up with just a mix of yellow, pink, and orange tiles. If you jumped from step to step from yellow to orange tile, your score climbed!

 

Grillby was doing pretty well; he missed a few steps, but just landed on the pink tiles. Sans gave him a skeletal thumbs up! Alphys was having some trouble, though… the helmet did not give her much visibility… she bumped into Undyne, who was doing ok in the heels, the two seemed to only be aiming for the yellow tiles trying to keep to a strategy. Papyrus and Frisk were leaping through the puzzle like gazelles, NYEH-HEH-hehing and giggling together.

 

The beat got faster, and the colors changed, now everyone took turns hopping in and out of the middle, still rotating in the ring. Green tiles started to pop up! And then Purple ones. Sans immediately slipped on a purple tile… Goodbye orange smell hello, lemony goodness… Sans recovered by touching a new orange tile, he would have to pay more attention…he was a little more disoriented than usual without his real head…

 

The scores were starting to diverge…Alphys was having trouble, so her and Undyne were moving down. Frisk and Papyrus were still, climbing, but Grillby and Sans were on their heels!

 

It was Grillby’s turn to jump into the middle, he did his best to rattle Sans skull, and keep to the beat… Suddenly he saw his chance to catch up in score! In the center of the inner circle, a plaid tile appeared, Grillby quickly jumped towards it…

 

He hit it! His and Sans point skyrocketed! Sans’ fire head flickered in excitement! But then the beat changed…. His celebration was short lived as the plaid tile disappeared and turned purple… he slipped straight into Papyrus… who was now sad that he smelled like lemons…haha…oops…

 

Everyone managed to re-form a larger circle again, and the music got intense! Red and blue tiles popped up in between the yellow and orange…green tiles started to spin monsters around… Sans ended up spinning around between two purple tiles with a green one in the middle, wooh! freedom!

 

Alphys hopped between two yellow tiles she could only really see the two closest tiles anyway… she had given up on keeping up with the crazy dance! But Alphys was pretty good at not getting shocked…

 

Undyne liked spinning in circles, so she jumped to every green tile she saw… the spinning was awesome!

 

Undyne and Alphys watched, as their strategy let their points climb back up! It was anyone’s game!

 

Suddenly the finale began! Cyan tiles popped up everywhere, and most of the monsters found themselves jumping through the dance floor, and whirling between every color! No one was in a circle anymore, even Papyrus, broke formation! Every monster did their best to run to the plaid and orange tiles that popped up but mostly just slipped and twirled around!

 

In the end, purple tiles pushed every monster into the center of the floor. Sans couldn’t help but smile at the absurdity of it all as Grillby and him swooshed in together.

 

The finale ended as the whole floor turned yellow, orange, yellow, orange, then plaid! Finally it turned pink! The music halted, and there was silence..

 

Then everyone was laughing like crazy tangled together in the middle of the dance floor!

 

“Papyrus, you numbskull That was AWESOME!” Undyne gave Papyrus a big old noogie.

 

“…ooOk bro… that was crazy…!”

 

Toriel gave everyone a round of applause.

 

The monsters looked up at the scoreboards:

 

With 920 points, Sans and Grillby had last place… Papyrus and Frisk hit 1001, and with 1010 points, Undyne and Alphys had somehow gotten the lead…the strategy of jumping between yellow and green tiles seeming to have somehow worked for them…

 

“WHAT! CONGRATULATIONS UNDYNE AND ALPHYS, YOU HAVE DEFEATED THE GREAT PAPYRUS AND THE AMAZING FRISK AND ARE TRUE MUMMIES!” Papyrus bowed to Undyne and Alphys… Grillby and Sans also politely clapped.

 

 

“Yes, congratulations, you two!” Toriel stood up.

 

“SANS AND GRILLBY, YOU DID FINE, TOO! DO NOT WORRY, I THINK YOU ARE BOTH OK MUMMIES!” Papyrus smiled at Grillby and Sans.

 

“Alphys and Undyne, you two get to do your final dance, with whatever colored floor you would like… and get to pick a color for the others…”

 

Alphys and Undyne talked for a bit.

 

“O-ok, we think everyone deserves a nice shot so- we would like blue for us, orange for Frisk and Papyrus, and Red for Sans and Grillby.”

 

“ALSO I HAVE DECIDED EVERYONE SHOULD SWAP BACK THEIR RESPECTIVE ITEMS…I FEEL LIKE WE HAVE UH, REALLY BONDED OVER DYING TOGETHER ENOUGH ALREADY…” The nasty band-aid had peeled back and was covering Papyrus’ eye socket… some of the wig had gotten stuck in it, too… Papyrus could take it no longer.

 

Everyone agreed to this rule change…

 

Frisk reluctantly returned Papyrus’ pauldrons.

 

Sans was super relieved to have his head back… they could work on head swapping another day… Grillby straightened up Sans’ bowtie, and Sans helped his elemental get his hair up again… the two stopped for a second for a quick hug.

 

“…Sorry I messed up…a few times…”

 

“no worries, the important thing is that you are having a _ribbing_ good time!”

 

Grillby smiled.

 

Undyne would probably have thrown the heels to the moon if they did not belong to Alphys… Alphys for her part was happy to see without a giant helmet on again.

 

“All right, dears, you are all doing great! Let’s watch each other’s group dances, now.

 

*****************************************************************

 

Alphys and Undyne stepped onto the floor with confidence! Alphys was a bit nervous, and Undyne was a bit dizzy from the green tiles. Everyone else sat in the grass, happy for the rest while the two approached each other. The sun had sunk to a glimmer of red in the background, so the tile puzzle lit the pair up.

 

It was true that Undyne could be a bit reckless, and Alphys could be a bit timid, but as the two got lost in each other’s eyes, it was clear that the two monster ladies shared a special connection that only grew stronger...

 

Alphys was nervous at first, but as she looked into Undyne’s determined gaze, her nerves melted away… the two performed a modest slow dance with jazz elements sprinkled in. Undyne led, and twirled Alphys by picking her up and spinning in a circle over her head. The two shuffled back and forth at each other, held each other and rocked across the stage slowly… It was offbeat, but sweet. The song ended with Alphys swooning in Undyne’s arms…

 

Everyone cheered. Toriel held up a scorecard with a 6.5 on it… tough judge...but Toriel clapped the loudest of them all.

 

Papyrus and Frisk were up next. Papyrus held out a hand for Frisk… the two were performing a pas de deux- a dance for two- and the pair proceeded to kick ass… Frisk delicately bopped and did their best to Grande Jeté across the stage in time with Papyrus…Papyrus helped Frisk twirl and then did a series of three impressive pirouettes…on his toes… dang that took a lot of training and practice- you could break your foot if you did that wrong...

 

Frisk was having fun, and Papyrus made sure to help them with every turn and kick. The two ended with Frisk doing a dramatic pose in fifth position, and Papyrus attempting a Tour en l’air (a turn in the air). He did pretty well, but did not quite stick the landing…

 

Everyone clapped and cheered! Toriel held up a 9.0. Sans had no idea if they could top that…

 

Grillby noticed Sans was nervous this time…

 

“…hey… Sansy, it’s our time to tan- _go_ up there...”

 

Sans loved every pun Grillby made…

 

Sans and Grillby took to the floor…the two smiled at each other, mirroring each other’s smiles… before the elemental knew it the dance had begun… Sans was carefully helping him move back and forth, step to step, they circled to the music… they did a grapevine… the leg wrap… step to step, never touching heels…media luna. Grillby stumbled after taking a step too slow,Sans paused to catch his arm… they paused and kept dancing. Grillby relaxed and let the music carry him, and the two ended phase one in a twirl…

 

Papyrus smiled as he watched his brother lead Grillby, their dancing was not perfect, but it had soul.

 

The music stopped, and abruptly switched to rave music… the two swung together, and then separated… here Grillby shined, his flame hair moving up and down with the music… he was a blur in the steps, and Sans did pretty well to keep up… the two shuffled and jumped… and fell to the floor with the last drop in the music…

 

The two panted… it was done… they had been so worried, and here the dance had passed with a blur!

 

Papyrus stood up with stars in his eyes.

 

“GREAT JOB YOU TWO!”

 

“…So… do we pass the skeleton dating ritual…?” Grillby looked nervously at Toriel, who held up a 8.5 on the scorecard…

 

They had not beaten Frisk and Papyrus… dang...but Grillby still felt happy with what they had done.

 

“WELL…YOU TWO DID EXCELLENTLY! BUT YOU HAVE NOT PASSED THE WHOLE RITUAL QUITE YET… PREPARE YOURSELVES FOR THE FINAL CHALLENGE!”

 

To Grillby’s shock, Papyrus picked up Sans and Grillby and carried them to the area behind the dance floor. There was a shallow pit… with a small towel at the bottom… and what looked like a switch...

 

“OK, I AM SORRY I COULDN’T MAKE IT CLEANER, BUT WELL THIS IS THE LAST CHALLENGE…” The pit had a pile of dirt next to it…

 

“OK YOU TWO, THE RULE IS YOU RISE UP OUT OF THE DIRT ONLY WHEN YOU THINK IT IS DAWN…I HAVE A SWITCH AT THE BOTTOM...IF SANS LEAVES THE PIT WITH A SHORTCUT AN ALARM WILL SOUND.THE CLOSER YOU GET THE MORE…MORE UM…” Papyrus picked up a folded piece of paper out of his sleeve for the last time.

 

“THE MORE BONDED YOU ARE WITH OUR DARK LORD ZHURG… MAY YOU RISE LIKE HIS ASH WILL RISE AGAIN…”

 

Papyrus carefully lowered Sans into the pit…

 

“SO THE CLOSER YOU TWO GET TO DAWN THE MORE OF A BLESSING YOU GET FOR YOUR RELATIONSHIP FROM ME, I GUESS. I WILL HEAR THE ALARM WHEN YOU GET OUT OF THE PIT! GOOD LUCK BROTHER… REST IN PEACE…”

 

“try not to get dirt in my-”

 

Papyrus covered Sans in all the dirt immediately using his blue attack. A grumpy muffled Sans could be heard complaining under the dirt pile…

 

Undyne grabbed a small piece of slate, with “here lies Sans” scrawled on it… She put dropped it on top of the dirt pile…

 

Sans made a muffled noise…

 

“IT PAINS ME TO SEE YOU SO FILTHY SANS… BUT IT IS APPARENTLY TRADITIONAL…”

 

Papyrus had Grillby lay next to him… Grillby stuck his bad arm into the dirt, and used it to hold Sans fingers… Papyrus then sprinkled a tiny handful of dirt over Grillby’s shirt, and Alphys laid a smaller slate and wrapped some Mummy bandages over his head so he couldn’t see the sky…

 

Everything was very dark for both of them…

 

“THIS is awesome! I LOVE skeleton traditions! Do you think if the two of them get hitched we get to entomb them and they have to break out? I HOPE so! Good luck you two nerds!”

 

“You-you can do it!” Alphys nervously patted Grillby and the grave Sans was in…

 

“That was so much fun you two, I hope we do it again when Papyrus is dating! I would stay longer, but I’ve been _buried_ in work, and Frisk needs to get some sleep.” Toriel and Frisk left, while Papyrus, Alphys, and Undyne kept talking for a bit…

 

“SO WHO WANTS TO WATCH ANIME?” Everyone else charged inside.

 

Grillby squeezed Sans hand and the two prepared for a very boring and dusty night.

 

*******************************************************************************


	24. In which Grillby is willing to make sacrifices for Sans health

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grillby and Sans are obnoxiously in love to Papyrus' vexation. Grillby and Sans get back into the swing of things and prep for tomorrow's hatching...

Welp, this had not been what Sans had been planning to do this evening. Why couldn’t skeletons have traditional marshmallow roasts or pillow fights? Nope instead they had traditional lying in the dirt… he would convert to flame monster if he could.

Sans felt Grillby’s hand… and tried to squeeze it back gently… the guy’s hand was still healing… it was weird to Sans, how the normally borderline or not at all solid Grillby’s hand was more solid charcoal at the moment…completely illogical… but well a lot about monsters was more magical than scientific. Grillby didn’t have to be scientific…Grillby was amazing…

The elemental was saying something… but Sans could not understand it, Grillby’s voice was hard to make out even without a layer of earth over your ear canals. Whatever he was saying Sans imagined it would be sweet… the guy was such a softie… Sans imagined cuddling up to him again… like earlier in he day… Sans felt his soul flutter…Sans cuddled into the dirt….

…and was rudely interrupted from his fantasy by a clod of dirt getting wedged into his arm…ugh he hoped Grillby was doing ok…

OH crap, was Grillby going to be ok… What if it rained? They had checked the weather like ten times it probably wouldn’t rain. 

Didn’t the weather report say it would get slightly windy? Sans was pretty sure a little wind wouldn’t hurt the guy… but still. He supposed Grillby could just up and leave if he had to, but then Papyrus would probably make them do this again….

He could kick Papyrus right now. The skeleton had thrown the dirt on him when he had his mouth open. If Papyrus started dating someone seriously, would Sans cover him in dirt… before tonight, no, but now… definitely… a lot of dirt.

Sans let his mind wander a bit further. First he tried counting the seconds… maybe he could accurately count… how many hours was it again till sunrise? He counted for exactly 240 seconds before getting bored. 

He probably should just to try to just fall asleep…thanks to work and Papyrus he might just naturally wake up early…

Sans tried to wish Grillby a good night… he got another mouth full of dirt for his trouble, but he figured Grillby heard him, as he got an extra big squeeze on his hand….

The two fell asleep holding hands… 

***************************************************************************

Sans woke up…he remembered a nightmare…he had been hugging Grillby and then Grillby turned to sand… where was Grillby, and why was he…

Oh right he as buried under a pile of dirt…he had no idea what time it was… but he figured it might as well be dawn… he wondered if Grillby was awake yet… maybe the elemental could sense the time of day by the heat? Then again Grillby didn’t usually sleep outside, so maybe not…

Sans had lost Grillby’s hand in the night…he thought he found it…he squeezed it… no response…oh that was a rock…. A slightly warm rock… but a rock…where was the elemental!

Sans felt around, no Grillby…did he leave? Maybe he slipped out of the grave? Sans reached his hand up a bit, and found Grillby’s hand just above the dirt….he touched Grillby’s hand…blazing fire… OUCH! It was pretty hot… Sans defied his instinct and poked it… and then tried tickling it….a fiery hand swatted his own hand back, and then suddenly Sans heard some muffled laughter…

Before Sans could shortcut out Grillby reaching in and quickly pulled him out of the dirt and into a hug. Sans tried to look to see the sky…but it was all dark...maybe there was a feint glow… was it the sun? Had they underslept? Sans heard a muffled alarm noise go off in the house…

The feint glow increased in intensity, and suddenly Sans felt Grillby’s finger carefully poke a rock out of his eye socket. As light entered his vision, Sans could see a bit better…

“…Sans you did it… look…” Sans looked up… aside from Grillby it was completely dark… except for a tiny golden sliver rising over a hill!

Grillby beamed at Sans… who did his best to smile with dust covering his mouth…

Sans tried to brush off the dust, but Grillby just pulled him in for an even tighter hug… with two very fiery arms? 

“grillbz? 

“…Oh, haha… the damage healed last night… the new fire finally broke through…uh… sorry… I had to lift it mostly out of the ground…It needs oxygen once it is just fire…. also it might be a little hot for a few days…”

The two hugged, and an excited Papyrus and sleepy Undyne strolled out of the house…

“CONGRATUALATIONS BROTHER AND GRILLBY! NYEH HEH HEH! YOU ARE BOTH OFFICIALLY ELITE DATING SKELETONS AND OR MUMMIES!” 

“Good job nerds!”

“YES, GRILLBY I AM GUESSING YOU USED FIRE SENSING ABILITIES TO DETECT THE SUNLIGHT?”

“…uhhhh…. No….was a bit busy detecting dew and steaming it away… and actually I usually sleep in later than this… Sans… has a very good sense of timing….”

“I DO NOT BELIEVE IT…. MY LAZY BROTHER GOOD AT WAKING UP? WELL, CONGRATULATIONS, COME IN, I WILL MAKE A VICTORY SPAGHETTI BREAKFAST!”

“I’m gonna help!” Undyne looked excited. Sans suddenly looked less excited, but he was starving.

Sans took another shower while Grillby and the soft couch bonded. Grillby especially appreciated the couch’s ability to not be cold damp grass…

*******************************************************************************************

Grillby and Sans wolfed down the victory spaghetti… Grillby in particular enjoyed Undyne’s burnt and overly spiced version she had dubbed ‘Fire-getti.”

Undyne, asked for a ride home to join Alphys and the eggs who had gone home the night before. 

Since Grillby was pretty sleepy, he also decided to finish the Sunday off at his apartment. After the weekend he needed a little time to be alone and reflect… or at least binge watch cooking competitions and eat pinecones… Papyrus and Sans drove him home, and the two had a bit of brotherly bonding.

Papyrus had been continuing to model for the art class, and was starting to make friends. Many of the human models did ballet, and they were showing him a few moves…

“SO THE HUMANS HENRY AND DES, THEY SAY WITH MY STRENGTH AND DANCE SKILLS I COULD PROBABLY DO WELL IN THEIR BALLET CLASS…. HENRY HAS BEEN SHOWING ME HOW TO DO PIROUETTES, THAT’S HOW I WAS ABLE TO DO SO MANY YESTERDAY!””

“that was really impressive. you did well teaching frisk, too.”

“FRISK IS VERY TALENTED. I JUST HOPE I AM GOOD ENOUGH FOR THEIR CLASS. IF I DO WELL I COULD BE IN THE RECITAL AT THE END OF SUMMER. I WOULD LOVE TO BE UP ON STAGE.”

Papyrus went to try out his first ballet class and Sans decided it was time to sell a few dogs again…it was borderline summer so it was hot outside… and now schools were getting out, and more and more kids enjoyed getting hot dogs by the pool… he got a stack of twenty on one kid… pretty good.

*********************************************************************************

 

Grillby could not help spending a few hours working at the bar helping out with the morning brunch crowd. Filling orders, seeing the little Rabbit monsters smile as they ate a giant waffle tower… made him happy. He couldn’t imagine doing anything else with his life… 

Once Red came in for the Sunday shift and the crowd thinned out he retreated to the apartment… and had a few moments to himself…

He felt… at peace… lying in the grass last night… had been calming…the quiet sounds of crickets and cars driving in the night… he had some time to reflect on his past relationships again…like he had told Sans, some had been good, some bad, and one awful…Sans had seen the worst… but the skeleton was just supportive…

Grillby knew he was stronger than before… or at least he thought about it less…he was happy with himself… and while Sans support was important… Grillby knew he was happy because he believed in himself again… so maybe he could relax a little now?

The flame monster had fun goofing off for a bit. He called his parents… Afi really loved hearing about the Multicolored Tile puzzle… “Hoo HOO… he gOt it to dETect weight..nICe…” 

He played around with the Copper Sulfate again… maybe the Mohawk was a little much for running a business (and also a pain to keep in shape), but a little bit of green in his flame made him feel happy… maybe it was time to try it out again?

Grillby scrubbed and sterilized the kitchen with ethanol and carefully laundered Sans jacket- drying it until it was fuzzy and warm… fuzzy and warm…and smelling like Sans. Dang, he was really smitten. Grillby wrapped the warm jacket on and curled up on the couch with a bag of pinecones, a cooking show marathon, and his cell phone.

Much later in the evening Grillby got a text…

It was a picture of two hot dogs that looked stuck together….sans had drawn some glasses and a static-like smile on one and a cartoon skull on the other… It was the most stupidly adorable thing Grillby had ever seen. 

Grillby texted Sans back…

******************************************************************************************

“SANS, I THOUGHT THE POINT OF GRILLBY GOING HOME WAS THAT HE WAS GOING TO GET SOME TIME TO HIMSELF…”

“he is by himself.”

“YOU HAVE BEEN TEXTING HIM BACK AND FORTH CONSTANTLY ALL THROUGH DINNER, AND ALSO THROUGH THIS MTT GAME NIGHT SPECIAL.”

“grillby’s watching it too, he thinks the answer is “The Alps.”

“WELL, WHAT IS THE POINT OF THE TWO OF YOU BEING APART IF YOU ARE JUST GOING TO TEXT CONSTANTLY? ALSO HE IS WRONG-THE ANSWER IS CLEARLY THE HIMILAYAS….”

“And the correct answer is… The ALPS! Congratulations Darlings!!!” Mettaton’s exuberant voice came through MTT…

“see he was totally right! and sometimes it’s nice to not be completely attached at the hip, but kind of still connected, you know.”

“UM, YES… SURE….I WILL ACT WAY LESS OBNOXIOUS WHEN I START DATING.”

“you say that now, but everyone acts a little stupid when they are in love-”

“NYEH HEH HEH, IN LOVE HUH…”

Sans’ whole face turned a bit blue and his mouth curved down.

“RELAX BROTHER, I AM HAPPY FOR YOU… I WISH I HAD THE NERVES TO ASK SOMEONE OUT.”

“we don’t have nerves… but you like someone?”

“NYEH HEH HEH…YEAH… AND WELL I DON’T KNOW…I HAVE A FEW PEOPLE I AM CONFUSED ABOUT….EVEN IF THERE WAS SOME MONSTER… WELL…. THERE IS THE MATTER OF WHETHER THEY LIKE ME… AND THE RULEBOOK IS VERY UNHELPFUL…I NEED TO THINK ABOUT IT…”

“well, you do you bro, there’s no need to jump into a relationship.”

Sans’ phone buzzed again…

*********************************************************************

Sans woke up Monday morning wanting to sleep in… but he had a lot of work to catch up on at lab… He had been lagging a bit, the project he wanted to work on was different than the one his boss wanted done first. He wanted to complete both before the conference coming up but he knew there was not enough time…

So he got ready, and then short cutted to Grillby’s with a couple of daisies and put them in the vase that Grillby now had on his counter. Mysteriousl, next to the vase, Sans found a little bag near the vase with his name in sharpie…Sans opened the bag… Grillby had made him lunch… there was a bottle of ketchup and a sandwich…. Wow that was sweet.

 

Sans knew the elemental was still sleeping… he smiled… did some dishes and hopped to work.

****************************************************************

When Grillby and Sans both finished work it was pretty late… a miserable Sans shared a beer or three with the elemental. After the last non-Sans customer left, the two curled up in a booth… 

“grillbz, you have no idea…i worked with gaster on finding a way to understand time travel and exploit tears in the dimension… and this guy wont even trust that i added the right error bars…” Sans played with Grillby’s currentl green hair…

Grillby nodded and stroked Sans skull back…

“ugh… i just wish he’s give me more autonomy… but he doesn’t believe anything i do with magic added to the equation…none of the humans believe in it… my grant proposal fell through….i mean they are scientists, so the are skeptical…alphys is trying to explain it to humans as an additional type of energy. he has me on this risky project instead… i should have it done soon, so maybe he’ll let me do the project afterwards…”

“…Sorry…that your grant proposal did not go through…Sans…you have not been enjoying work lately…are you doing ok…?”

“i’m not sure. i've been meaning to talk to alpys about it… i know she doesn’t do physics, but maybe she can help me out…”

“…It is that bad…to not get a grant…?”

“well.. in short…it means i don’t have a leg to stand on…since my boss has to fund me on his own grant i’ve been his lackey lately… his project is super risky….so he keeps pushing me from quick project to quick project, and i’m getting results, but they aren’t the results he wanted… the better journals rarely publish negative results… so they are having a hard time making a paper with it … i talked to greg about it… apparently that is pretty normal for human science… although he is worried that the boss’ project is under-researched and going nowhere… and that i might get burned…there are a few problems… …”

“…well… every job… has its stress… but well… is it what you enjoy…?”

“well. science has always been my passion… but the type of science i do is seen as science fiction here…so i’ve had to settle…i am not sure right now…” 

Grillby let Sans lean into him. The skeleton’s eyes closed as if with the weight of the world…

“well, i thought paps was going to have the most trouble… he can’t seem to pick a passion… but her i am stuck in a job i dislike… at least my hp’s ok. i was worried the stress might be affecting it…but it turns out it… uh…”

“…It… did what…?...”

“well…uh, after we, uh, erm…relaxed on saturday, it kind of went up.”

“…YOUR HP WENT UP!.... Sans! How much?...” Grillby’s flames flickered quickly…

“heh. take a look grillbz…”

With permission, Grillby looked at Sans’ soul. HP: 3.

“…three!...”

“yeah! it was basically at 2 already… but something about last weekend helped it up a bit more…so, uh, if i get it up one more point i can start to try to raise the cap…”

“…so do you think it was all the making out?... Because Sans… if it’s for you health… it is a sacrifice I am willing to make…”

“heh, heh. well. can’t say no to that…”

 

*****************************************************************************************

 

Tuesday came by quickly…Grillby woke up earlier than usual… he wanted to get something for the monsterlings for tomorrow… Sans had already gone to work, the elemental had tried to meet him in the morning… but the skeleton had already gone, leaving a new mysterious flower type… it was red with many petals…and a note that said to be careful… Grillby wondered what there was to be careful about- and then immediately found a thorn in his finger *ow. The elemental looked more carefully at the note…it was a red rose. Wow! It looked a bit different than the cake decoration… it was really deep red…. Hard to get that color with food coloring. 

Grillby smiled… it smelled nice. He added the rose to the vase with the daisy from yesterday… 

Grillby had a few hours before opening… so he drove to the mall. Cars kept honking at him, even when he sped up to right under the speed limit! Thankfully it wasn’t too far. He realized part way there that most stores in the main mall would be closed until his bar opened… he parked and checked his phone… there was a whole store dedicated to babies in the same area…

Grillby entered the store, and tried to ignore the stern gaze from humans that were trying to decide if he would set the building on fire… A manager walked up to an employee pointed to Grillby.

Immediately someone walked up to him…

“Can I help you?” 

“…I am looking for something for my friends… their three monsterlings are hatching tomorrow…”

“oh triplets! How adorable, we have a newborns section right there.”

Grillby walked to the area, and the employee followed him. 

“Are they fire monsters? Because most of our products here are flamab-”

“…No… they are dinosaur fish….and as you can see…Elementals do not set everything we touch on fire…although infants do have some trouble…so if I ever have kids I suppose I will not shop here…”

The woman who was following but snapped her mouth shut…

Well, Grillby was used to humans following him in stores whenever he went to a new one… but at least most did not directly follow this closely…

“Sorry. I did not mean to be rude sir….um” The employee actually looked a bit embarrassed. 

“…It is ok… but… I will not burn down our store…you do not have to follow me…”

“uh. I would stop. But. My boss.”

“…oh…”

He supposed if he was going to be watched the whole time he was here he might as well act try small-talk. Grillby pointed at a poster on a display.

“human children sure drink a lot of milk…” Grillby passed the fifth display of a human baby drinking milk…

“yes it is very important that babies get a lot of milk to help them grow.”

“…do you think a fish-dinosaur would drink milk…..maybe I should go to the grocery store instead…?”

“uh, sir, formula or breast-milk has very different nutritional values than cow’s milk… and I don’t know about monster biology but I doubt it is a requirement for reptiles or fish…”

“…breast-mil-is oh right… that what those area for… right… right…” Grillby… was really bad at non-elemental biology. 

Grillby wasn’t sure if he or the woman following him was more embarrassed. He looked away pointedly and stumbled into the clothing section…suddenly realizing he had no idea how large the newborns would be or how quickly they would grow. He had only ever seen baby fire elementals up close… although they were usually human baby sized…

Thankfully the woman took pity on him.

“So, for newborns, I like to get the parents something that they can grow into… um… you said dinosaur fish, so do they have legs?”

“…We are pretty sure they will… both mothers have legs…”

“Well, I was going to suggest getting them each a few pairs of socks in each size category… or you could do the same things with shirts. If you aren’t sure about the legs…they have snaps. You could get three shirts in each increment size: 3 month sizes, 3 in six month sizes. You get the idea.”

“…Thanks… that is actually… a great idea…”

Grillby texted Sans a few pictures of some shirts… and Sans said he would pay Grillby back for the 3 and 18 month shirts if Grillby got the 6 and 12 months… The flame monster had fun picking out shirts with little sharks on them… he had a feeling Undyne would enjoy them.

Grillby got back to the bar barely in time to open for brunch… he had driven a little bit slowly… thankfully he had cleaned up last night and set the tables after Sans had gone home. He threw the shopping bags behind the bar, straightened his bowtie and got ready for any hungry customers…

 

******************************************************************************************

Grillby calmly waited tables for rabbit monster families and business monsters taking an early lunch… he enjoyed watching the groups of families and friends come in and enjoy his food. It was before he normally served drinks, so he let a bunny family that had been coming in almost daily sit at the front. The mother rabbit, he thought her name was Peppercorn, and her three very young kids who were too young for school. These were some of the rabbit monsters that liked to experiment with fruit on everything. The kids twirled around in the spiral seating… Their mom told them if they behaved they would get a milkshake… Grillby wondered if he should expand the desserts…

Right now breakfast was pretty simple, waffles, pancakes, French toast, eggs and toast, bacon, or hash browns… he served breakfast foods until 1:00… you’d be surprised how many people wanted breakfast at lunch. He hadn’t done too much breakfast before coming to the surface, and he did not want to expand it beyond those choices… he still wasn’t sure he wanted a diner… and he was still often the only one working early. 

Still, having a few more customers in the morning had helped him have a little extra cash flow, and he liked seeing the old families from Snowdin doing well in the surface world.

He looked around, besides for the rabbit families, the slime family was here… and today Punk Hamster was in. Grillby had been missing Punk…that guy had gotten a gig downtown… but still came for lunch… and still monopolized the jukebox…

He saw Bunny talking with what he vaguely remembered was her sister. Before he could go to say hi, an unexpected guest arrived…

*****************************************************************************************

His mother Fiametta came in…hair in a tight bun, pantsuit on point, and glared at the bar as Papyrus used to do. She hated grease. But her frown softened into a smile as she saw Grillby at the bar with the rabbit family. 

Grillby gave his mom a quick hug. 

“…Grillbert… your restaurant seems popular… and what is with your hair young man!...”

“…Mother… it is lovely to see you…what are you doing on the surface..?” Grillby was a grown elemental who could wear his hair as green as he wanted…

“…Your father and I…are looking for an apartment…on the surface… your father had another episode…I think the sunlight will do him good…”

“…but it is much colder up here…”

“…King Asgore… came to visit Hotland… he wanted to know if any more flame monsters wanted to come to the surface and if there is anything he can do to help… he was going door to door… we got talking… apparently he know you Grillbert?… he seems to think highly of you…mentioned you helped a friend of his…”

“…Oh, well… I met him last week…let me help a few customers…and um would you like anything?…”

Fiametta glared at the menu before deciding on French toast and a gin… it was a little early for the bar, but Grillby made exceptions for his mom…

Grillby quickly ran to a few tables with checks and orders, and came back to his mother.

“…Grillbert… what are these…?” Fiametta pointed to the shopping bags with the baby shirts in them.

“…Those are for a friend’s hatching…”

“…Ah… I got excited for a second… but don’t worry… I am not your father…what friend?... not a fire elemental by the looks of things…”

“…No…Undyne…she was captain of the Royal guard… she is friends with Sans and Papyrus… and King Asgore…I met King Asgore briefly…last Friday… there was an incident…we helped keep her eggs alive during the storm…”

“…oh… Grillbert!... you area friends with Captain Undyne…excellent!...And yes… Asgore mentioned you risked your life… and that your arm was hurt…let me see it…”

Fiametta grabbed Grillby’s newly healed arm…

“… looks alright son…just keep drinking lots of oils… and try not to soak yourself like that… you know cousin Sparkus…”

Cousin Sparkus was missing the ability to form their left arm…up to their shoulder after partly falling into a river.

“…It was an emergency…but yes… you know me… I try to be careful…”

“…Yes… you have always been careful…and I just want you to know… that your father and I are very proud of you…” Fiametta’s black smoking eyes focused on her only son… She knew could not always be there to protect him… and it pained her… but she had to remember he was an adult now…

“…So tell me…you are still happily dating Sans..?” Fiametta pointed to the rose at the counter. 

“How is he…treating you right?” Fiametta’s concern drifted away and she smiled as her son’s flames went high and he excitedly gushed about the skeleton.

“…Haha…you won’t believe… what sort of rituals skeletons have for dating…”

Fiametta and Grillby enjoyed chatting in between customers, eventually Fiametta headed out, promising that she and Afi would stop by in between apartment hunts.

**********************************************************************************

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had a lot of fun with this... We are going to see more Fiametta and Afi... also Grillby really did not pay attention in high school


	25. In which the entire Fluffy Bunny Collector's edition is found...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The night of the hatching is here! Everyone gathers at Undyne and Alphys place....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part II. is coming later tonight... I am busy running back and forth to the lab today to do irradiations, so I want a little more time to finish the next bit... 
> 
> I am having a fun time imagining Papyrus share his love of literature with others...

Fiametta was relieved. Asgore had seen very concerned about her son, but his arm looked fine to her! He even seemed a bit bolder, although she wished it took a form that wasn’t going back to that stupid green hair. If he started wearing those stupid pants again she might have a word with him…

Anyway Asgore probably just was not used to a fire monster’s healing abilities.

 

Even better Grillbert had agreed to take a week off to help travel a bit! Apparently gold was very valuable to humans so their savings would be fine. Asgore was insisting that monsters take advantage of their freedom to travel and there were a few human tourism destinations that were having specials to try to get monsters to come for summer vacation.

 

Afi really wanted to visit someplace warmer, so of the available locations they were going to some large desert Canyon that was having a special sale to encourage monster visitors in two weeks. It was a day’s drive away but it was said to be spectacular.

 

Fiametta had only barely seen the surface. She had been born Underground after all, and what was the point of coming to the surface if you never left one tiny spot?

 

 

Most of her fire monster friends who were going were taking a tour bus to get there, but Afi insisted they would have more freedom if they had their own ride…thus Grillby could drive. She told him to bring Sans along if he wanted to come and Magmus might come as well. It might be a bit crowded in the five person car, but it would be nice to finally have some family bonding time.

 

 

She was really proud of Grillbert right now. It had been less than a year since monsters came to the surface, and he had already moved in, gotten a drivers license and a car, and his business was thriving.

 

As much as she had wanted her son to join the guard...

Well the guard was mostly no more, and Asgore was trying to prevent monsters from joining the human military. So ultimately she supposed his career was fine for now. His flame looked healthier too- probably from all the sunlight. Maybe it would help Afi to move up, too.

 

Afi… he was older,true, but she did not understand why he was having these cooling spells. He ate well, exercised, and he had been fine underground for centuries! She wasn’t sure the surface would really help, but if nothing else being closer to family would be nice. Grillbert was up here already and Magmus was moving up. Afi could not stand to be far away from all his children.

 

*********************************************************************************

 

Grillby was doing well at the bar that day… business only got busier. He was glad that Cindy and Flopsy came in. Bunny was sitting at the bar, having a drink and telling him about her new training regimen with Toriel. Grillby’s flame jumped up as for the second time that day an unexpected monster walked into his bar. King Asgore.

 

Monsters bowed as he walked by, and even the humans in the bar stopped conversation. Asgore was pretty famous- he had two monsters with him, a Rabbit monster and a dragon monster, both very tall and no longer wearing royal guard armor, but instead wearing black suits as was human custom for security. Asgore did not always have an entourage but Grillby supposed he must have been up to something important. So why was he here?

 

Asgore smiled and waved kindly at all the monsters, stopping to give a smile and a hello to the flock of young rabbits that immediately ran up to him. After taking the time to talk to each of them he came up to the bar- oh Asgore! Asgore was coming to talk to him.

 

Grillby bowed.

 

“…It is an honor to have you here your majesty… er… would you like anything…?”

 

“Ah, Grillby, sure, we will each have a- er- glass of ale.”

 

Grillby forgot how timeless Asgore was. Ancient beers tended to be made without hops, this was pretty hard to find,  but Grillby had some decent stuff older monsters tended to like, so he poured three of his best low hop beers.

 

Asgore took a sip and looked pleased. The dragon and bunny guards downed theirs instantly. *Phew Grillby could remain a bartender.

 

“I just wanted to thank you after last Friday, Undyne... is like a daughter to me. Due to some duties I cannot attend the hatching, but I wanted to thank you and Bunny here.”

 

“We…we just, did what we could.” Bunny replied nervously, to which Grillby nodded his head.

 

“Also, I would like to remind you that we are currently looking for monsters to serve as representatives for upcoming human-monster relation events, both of you would be encouraged to apply.”

 

“Oh wow…” Bunny looked like she might feint.

 

“Would you like some forms for the bar? We are trying to diversify the types of monsters that interact with humans. I admit the first couple of months we were a bit selective.”

 

Grillby recalled how it was no secret that Asgore very politically had been trying to just meet humans with small non-magical monsters… lots of froggits…moldsmalls, young rabbit monsters.  Asgore himself had been downplaying his own fire abilities, never using it to light more than a match. Elemental monsters or monsters with magic like Sans had not been prominently featured in so much as a monster-human hot dog roast.

 

“…why…the change in policy… are humans ok with magic…”

 

Asgore frowned and took another sip of beer before replying,

 

“No, no they know we have magic, it is too difficult to hide. Honestly, I had not expected humans to forget how to use theirs… of all things to forget… but no. As I have told the human representatives, I believe as we intermingle they will eventually figure out how to use theirs again. Some are trying already, and I have no problem in helping them learn.”

 

“Aren’t you worried about that? That they could use it to, um, seal us away again” Bunny looked concerned.

 

“No…their magic was weak. One in a hundred had any significant power, and only one in a million could do anything impressive. I knew the human that sealed us. She was… an extreme exception and not entirely human. No, what they have replaced magic with is worse. Humans could dust us if they wanted to already. Their modern weapons are of greater concern.” Asgore frowned.

 

“Anyway, Humans requested we start by introducing smaller monsters to prevent their kind from panicking in the first few months, but time has passed, and the power to the core is getting harder to maintain so I am trying to encourage more monsters to come to the surface. Thus, it would be better if humans were introduced to more of us. After talking to a few human ambassadors and now that the human election is over… they finally agree that we are ready to put - using their words, not mine- ‘scarier monsters in the spotlight.’ Both myself and the humans believe that as long as we handle the situation with care, human opinion of monsters should remain favorable, and the population should not be scared of us.”

 

“…Humans…are scared of us… …?” Grillby did not understand. Humans were the terrifying ones! He thought back to his interactions with humans...were they scared?

 

“Yes, many humans fear us! It is hard for me. I cannot believe they actually forgot we existed sealed under the mountain- that there even was a war…that they won decisively. We were considered…imaginary. Have you talked to any humans about monsters appearing?”

 

Grillby shook his head no.

 

“Well” Asgore continued, “All their texts on monsters, even accurate ones, were considered fiction and unfortunately monster portrayals in current human media are extremely negative for some monster types. The current human trend in movies when we came to the surface was that zombies would devour humans and cause a mutagenic plague.”

 

“…what…?”

 

“It is absurd, but that is the nature of fiction. Some of the tales I heard about humans were equally absurd, so it is of no surprise. The human government has agreed to discourage these old tales but that can only do so much, so we need to be proactive in introducing ourselves in a dignified manner.”

 

Grillby nodded,

 

“… I will… encourage monsters to sign up…”

 

“Me too!” Bunny’s eyes shined with determination!

 

“Wonderful! Thank you two again, and spread the word!”

 

Asgore smiled, finished his beer and walked out, leaving a rather generous tip. The Dragon guardsmen handed Grillby a stack of applications and waved him off.

 

Grillby had just served Asgore a beer…dang… career goal.

 

The whole restaurant crowded the bar.

 

“Ooh what did he talk to you about!”

 

“Spill the beans Grillby!”

 

“…oh…he wants… lots of monsters to apply to meet with humans…not just animals monsters this time…”

 

An excited murmur filled the crowd.

 

“Oh how exciting!” A Loox grabbed an application immediately.

 

“Yeah, I wanna meet more humans!”

 

 

**************************************************************************************

 

Grillby was not particularly interested in being part of the human-monster relations meet and greet team, but he was curious about how the humans felt.

 

“…hey Cindy…”

 

“Hey boss man! Was that King Asgore, are you seriously friends with a King?”

 

“…um…. Well… acquaintances… uh can I ask a question…”

 

“go ahead!”

 

“…are humans…ok with monsters…. I heard some are actually scared of monsters….I mean… we’re harmless…?”

 

“Eh, has someone given you a hard time?”

 

“…well… only a bit…been followed in stores... funny looks… nothing too weird…”

 

Cindy frowned.

 

“ugh… well some will do that to other humans, too. You should know by now that humans are pretty divided amongst themselves, but most humans in this area like you guys!”

 

“…is it out of fear…that we will…um give you zombie plagues and stuff…like in your movies…?”

 

“Only lunatics would believe that once they meet you! I mean some humans will probably never accept you, and that will be partly because of fear and partly because they are worried you will take their jobs-but that is not because of zombie movies. I have no idea what the new scary enemy for horror films will be. But once more humans and monsters get to know each other it should be better!”

 

Grillby still looked worried. Cindy tried to reassure him.

 

“Ya know, when I was a kid I was scared that monsters lived in my closet and would eat me, but look at me now! Honestly, had no idea you were real-did you guys know we existed?”

 

“… Well… yes… we were trapped in the mountain by humans …and when I was young I was scared a human would come and eat me…”

 

Grillby frowned as Cindy tried her best not to snort-it didn’t work, she burst out laughing.

 

“Oh My Sweet Jesus, Boss. I don’t think you have to worry about that.”

 

“…Well… you should not worry about monsters wanting to eat you either…”

 

“Nah, I’m more boney than Papyrus! I’d give you indigestion!”

 

Grillby decided not to point out that he would not suffer from indigestion from eating bones.

 

Cindy gave Grillby a thumbs up and went back to waiting tables.

 

***************************************************************************

 

Grillby and Sans sat on the bed together in Grillby’s apartment. It was about midnight, and the bar had finally closed. They wrapped the presents for the hatching. Sans had grabbed a few extra items and Grillby was trying to see if there was anything he had that remotely fit Sans- burying someone in dirt while they wore a suit tended to ruin it a bit.

 

Sans tried on a fifth dress shirt, but nope. Curse Grillby’s amazingly hot long arms. He was going to have to get another dress shirt and pants, but at least he could borrow a bowtie. Dating sure was expanding his wardrobe. Well tomorrow was brother bonding day so he could go to the mall.

 

Sans hung the last dress shirt back up and jumped onto bed with the flame monster. He tried to cuddle into Grillby, but the elemental looked as though he was far away, flame drifting up carelessly, head pointed up, staring at the ceiling.

 

“…Sans… did you know some humans… are scared of monsters…?”

 

Sans closed his eye sockets and buried his head into Grillby.

 

“yeah. i remember when frisk told me how scared they were when they first saw me. that ended up hurting. i thought there was no hope for us getting along.” Sans motioned to his chest.

 

“although, once we finally got talking things were fine. so you know, i think we’ll be ok.”

 

“…you…think so…”

 

“grillbz, come on, your bar is already swarming with humans, plenty of them are already fine with us. the ones i’m getting to know are pretty similar to monsters… i’m starting to think humans and monsters are the same.”

 

“…the same…?”

 

“eh, well…some good…some bad…humans are probably just ugly animal monsters…”

 

Grillby snickered.  Well, they could have kids with monsters, maybe they were really just long lost ancestors…

 

Sans snuggled into Grillby further, and the flame monster finally looked down at Sans.

 

Suddenly his flame lit up!

 

“…Hey Sans… my family want to go on a trip in a few weeks…they booked a hotel and everything… would you like to come…?”

 

“woah. that’s really nice of them. absolutely. it is a bit short notice, but i have plenty of vacation days, where to?”

 

“…um.. to the…um.. Grey… Canyon… I think…”

 

“grey canyon? huh sounds… sad”

 

“…It is a super famous … human landmark…. Maybe um… the name is wrong…that’s right…maybe it is the Grape canyon?... I guess there is a winery…Mother did not tell me… much…about it…except that there is a desert…?”

 

“well, that sound better! we will have a _grape_ time! sounds a- _peal_ -ing.”

 

“…we will be a large… _bunch_ …though… so pack light…”

 

Grillby and Sans snuggled in together. Sans happily thought of more fruit puns as the two went to bed for the night.

 

**************************************************************************

 

It was the day of the hatching, Papyrus had been texting with Undyne almost constantly! His cell phone was buzzing like crazy.

 

“what’s she say now bro!”

 

 

“THE MONSTERLING ARE WIGGLING, A LOT!... THEY BROUGHT THEM OUT TO A SMALL POOL OF WATER…”

 

 

“GASP* ONE OF THE EGGS IS- I CAN’T READ IT…. RO-KEN?”

 

Sans ran to Papyrus ready to shortcut over!

 

“NO-NO THAT WAS A TYPO.. ONE OF THE EGGS IS ROLLING!” Sans and Papyrus let out a sigh of relief.

 

“ok, bro, let me finish up some work, wanna go to the mall a bit?”

 

“YES! LET ME JUST FINISH TEXTING UNDYNE SOME VERY CRITICAL EGG HATCHING ADVICE I FOUND ON THE UNDERNET…”

 

Sans relaxed and short-cutted to the lab, he had it set up so a computer would crunch away at some data for him today. Next, he put in his request for time off with David. Would the guy let him take a whole week? Sans was pretty nervous.

 

“No problem Sans, you work hard, on Saturdays and into the night...I was going to suggest you take a week off to relax before the conference anyway.”

 

“oh, wow, thanks boss! i’ll try and finish this project before then, then.” Well, that had been rather easy.

 

“Yes, the conference is usually very draining. You area giving three poster sessions and a talk- so get your energy up! Where are you going for vacation?”

 

“i’m going on vacation with my partner’s family. i think they like me but i wanna make a good impression, so if you know anything to do near the grape canyon...”

 

Sans was a bit disappointed when David almost snorted out coffee with laughter and he learned he was going to the ‘Grand Canyon.’ There were a lot less puns he could think of. But on the plus side, David had been there and recommended a certain activity that would certainly be sold out if he didn’t make a reservation immediately.

 

“You’ll be sure to impress their folks! My family loved it!”

 

Sans checked with Grillby and made a special reservation…

 

*******************************************************

 

Papyrus and Sans drove to the mall. Papyrus ran into the book store and somehow managed to find the complete set of “Fluffy Bunny.” There was Peekaboo with Fluffy Bunny, Fluffy Bunny’s first alphabet song, Fluffy Bunny learns shapes... etc. Sans was happy they only ever had the one tattered book. The twenty three book collector’s addition would have kept him reading to Papyrus all night.

 

Apparently Fluffy Bunny was having a revival, so Papyrus also got three Fluffy Bunny plushies for the monsterlings and a Fluffy Bunny coloring book set.

 

“woah, don’t you think that’s a lot paps?”

 

“UNDYNE IS MY BEST FRIEND AND HER FRY DESERVE A GOOD INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE!!! IF NOT THEY WILL BE DROWNED ONLY IN ANIME- WHICH WHILE FUN- IS FOR BABIES- AND NOT QUITE AS INTELLECTUAL AS FLUFFY BUNNY.”

 

Sans imagined Undyne reading Fluffy Bunny. He had a feeling Fluffy Bunny was going to be edited a bit in Undyne’s version.

 

“DO NOT WORRY SANS"

 

Sans managed to find another dress shirt and slacks that would do for tonight. Papyrus texted Undyne and the two brothers headed home around three. The hatching party started at 5:00 PM, although really the hour wasn’t certain, they could hatch before or after…. Still Alphys wad estimated 7:00 PM, so they should be ok.

 

Before he knew it, Sans was shortcutting to Grillby’s to pick up the flame monster.

 

********************************************************************************

Undyne was pacing around the rim of the kiddie pool in her living room that currently housed the eggs. At first she had protested, a kiddie pool was not particularly badass. They had started rolling around so much that she was glad that they were bumping into the cushioned walls.

 

Undyne frowned as the yellow egg did laps around the outside…that one was going to be trouble. The eggs jelly coats had all but disappeared and only a thing layer of opaque egg was now separating the monsterlings from the outside world. The eggs had gone opaque yesterday just after the jelly coat started to disappear making it difficult to see the monsterlings inside. The last time she had seen them, they had all been curled up, with little tails their faces mostly curled up…

 

Carvata and Urdyne were making a big pot of what Undyne was pretty sure was beef stew. Urdyne kept trying to add in seaweed and plankton and Carvata kept brushing his hand away gently with her tail.

 

“IF THEY ARE GOING TO BE STRONG THEY NEED TO EAT LOTS OF MEAT!”

 

“And get lots of vitamins!”

 

“YES, BUT NOT TOO MUCH GREEN FOOD, THEY COULD GET SICK.” Carvata cut up what looked like half a cow, ready to toss it into the pot while looking terrifying holding a knife in her tiny clawed hands.

 

“Eh, All meats is bad for a fry!” Urdyne looked like he was about to passionately toss the whole seaweed tray into the mix.

 

Undyne suddenly felt compelled to intervene in the kitchen, she wasn’t sure if Carvata or Urdyne would be more stubborn.

 

With a calm voice Undyne jumped in,

 

“Ooh, hey grandma, grandpa… what smells so good, tell me what you are making?”

 

Undyne could be calming. Carvata both happily explained how each dish was traditional for young lizards and fry.

 

Meanwhile, Alphonse and Cordelia had sandwiched Alphys on the couch,

 

“So Alphys dear, I’ve thought of the best way to combine names yet! Alundynephys! Isn’t it a good one! Imagine if we have combined your name, wouldn’t Alphvata been great? ” Alphonse pushed his glasses up.

 

“Now, Now Alphys, have I ever told you about Undyne’s great Auntie Amphitrite…she was such a poet…very academic like yourself.”

 

Although Alphys was sweating a bit, but with the grace and patience of a saint the dinosaur monster politely listened to each suggestion, and confidently answered with the golden line,

 

“t-thank you. What great suggestions… we are considering those." Alphys smiled. She had to learn to politely stand up for herself.

 

The doorbell rang. Oh YES! Alphys jumped up from the couch, forcing Cordelia and Alphonse to bump slightly!

 

“Oh-Oh my…I need to let the guests in.”

 

Coral had picked up Bunny, Doggo, and Ugly and Sans, Papyrus, and Grillby had also pulled in, so it was now a full house. Toriel had not been able to get a sitter for Frisk, but had sent a present with Papyrus. Still Undyne and Alphys hoped more people would distract their parents.

 

Grillby and Papyrus volunteered to help Urdyne and Carvata with the dinner. Sans, Doggo, and Doggo’s seeing eye dog claimed their past job as sentries helped Undyne with egg watch. Ugly, Coral, and Bunny helpfully distracted Alphonse and Cordelia with the naming conversation.

 

Undyne and Alphys finally had a moment together, they quietly side- hugged and went up to the eggs. It could be any minute now… the two lovingly looked at their little brood.

Aside from the rolling and at this point bouncing eggs, things had calmed down. Everyone had cleared the couches back and now everyone who wasn’t actively cooking or setting the table was enjoying watching the eggs. Grillby and Papyrus had helped with the dinner. They had decided on a large meat stew via Carvata, a seaweed salad Urdyne style, bread rolls a-la-Papyrus, and the return of Grillby’s magical apple tart. Apparently the monsterlings would be ready to eat once they hatched, so dinner would be served after the hatching ceremony. The warm items were keeping to temperature in the oven and the seaweed salad was chilled in the fridge.

 

Undyne and Alphys instead handed out some traditional Egg Hatching snacks… not enough to fill anyone up, but enough to keep people from going crazy- tiny pretzels that they had shaped like fish and lizards. Alphys had made them herself and they were pretty good!

 

**********************************************************************

“NOW THAT EVERYONE IS SETTLED AND HAS SNACKS IT IS TIME FOR PRESENTS GRAAAH!” Carvata roared, before downing her whole bag of snack pretzels. Everyone was excited to shower Undyne and Alphys with gifts… the two had not had a wedding, so the parents were excited for an excuse to give them something.

 

Everyone pushed their presents towards a pretty embarrassed Undyne and Alphys. Undyne loved presents, but it was a bit overwhelming.

 

The couple tried to choose their parents first, but both groups insisted they wait.

 

So first they opened a small box from Asgore, carefully wrapped. It was a magical music box- a glittering sandcastle that seemed to be held together by magic adorned the top, and when opened, the castle magically collapsed and a little sand siren popped into the middle. The siren let out an enchanting tune… everyone’s eyes closed a little…

 

Alphys carefully closed the box and read the note.

 

“Undyne and Alphys, forgive me for not being able to attend. I have been hoping to give this to you… it is a relic from Emperor Toru’s time, a magical music box that is sure to help the little one’s sleep.”

 

“Wow...” Cordelia grasped her heart.

 

“Woah…” Undyne was speechless, she and Alphys very carefully placed the delicate music box out of harms way.

 

Alphys moved to Toriel’s present.

 

“Alphys and Undyne, dears, here are some essentials to help you worry less.”

 

The box was filled with healing potions, bandages, a thermometer, and remedies to common monster ailments like pink-scale, claw-pox, and magic drain-useful stuff.

 

“Wh-what a thoughtful present.” Everyone nodded. Undyne personally felt that if the monsterlings were related to her, they would probably need a few band-aids.

 

“Ok bro, your turn.”

 

“Sure, sister dearest, open mine after the gift from the King and Queen.”

 

Next, Undyne ripped open the present from Coral: little swimming suits, three with tail holes, and three without, one orange, one green, one yellow.

 

“I wasn’t quite sure what would work best, sister, but I think they will like these stylish suits! I sewed them myself, and I can adjust them if need be!”

 

“Coral, you are amazing! Thanks little bro!”

 

Undyne gave Coral a big hug. Her brother had been trying to get into a design school on the surface, she was sure he would.

 

“Thank-thanks Coral!” Alphys gave Coral a hug, too.

 

Next Undyne and Alphys opened a big box from Ugly and Bunny.

 

“We weren’t really sure cousin, but these should help.” Ugly smiled.

 

Alphys carefully unwrapped a box of nappies and three small very fuzzy Snowdin style Bunny blankets complete with little carrot and grass decorations... they were adorable.

 

“The-these are adorable Bunny!” Alphys beamed.

 

“Thanks! My sister helped me sew them!”

 

“WOAH! You sewed these! Amazing! And the nappies are useful” Undyne smiled.

 

“Check at the bottom cousin!” Ugly nudged Undyne.

 

Underneath were three small training fishing rods.

 

“They can come fishing with Uncle Caspian anytime you need a babysitter!”

 

“Thanks Cousin Caspy! Don’t worry, I bet they will get your fishing skills!” Undyne hugged Ugly-er Caspian.

 

They unwrapped Doggo’s next, a large box which revealed…

 

“Balls! Frisbees! Chew toys! sweet!” Undyne appreciatively gave a stuffed badger a small bite. A high pitched squeak came out.

 

“THAT IS AN EXCELLENT IDEA DOGGO!” Carvata seemed excited by these. Papyrus was suddenly regretting not getting Undyne bone shaped dog treats again.

 

“Th-thank you doggo!”

 

“Woof! Healthy pups need exercise! And toys! Endogeny suggested the Frisbees! And LD suggested the balls! They are sorry they couldn’t come, a bit sick, but enjoy playing with the pups!”

 

Papyrus nervously bit his hand as Undyne opened the collector’s edition of Fluffy Bunny.

 

“Hey this is great Paps! These are gonna be some smart kids!”

 

“You-you’ll have to come by and read it to them-some-sometime!”

 

Papyrus’ eyes went wide.

 

“IT WOULD BE AN HONOR!” Finally Papyrus would be the one to read Fluffy Bunny! He should probably get some reading glasses.

 

Undyne and Alphys unwrapped Sans and Grillby’s present.

 

“Oh thank goodness! We needed a few more shirts! This is great!”

 

“San-Sans did you slip this joke book in here?” Alphys held up a book that looked like it was packed full of puns and then another that looked like it was a picture book on the solar system.

 

Grillby and Sans got hugs, too. Grillby was not surprised Sans had slipped in a few books on science and puns. He suspected that Sans would push science onto their kids someday, if they were so lucky… Grillby smiled at Sans.

 

Finally, they got to the parents' gifts.

 

Urdyne and Cordelia handed the pair a slip of paper,

 

“Look in the backyard.”

 

Three very nice cribs were outside, it looked like Urdyne had built them, and like Cordelia had carefully decorated them with little painted shells.

 

Everyone ooh-ed.

 

“Th-these are beautiful...”

 

“And the cribs are pretty durable! You broke one of the first cribs we gave you with your little spears.”

 

“Mom, dad, Thank you so much, these are Perfect!”

 

Alphys and Undyne gave them a very big hug.

 

Finally, Alphonse and Carvata’s present, another mysterious card…

 

“Hu-Hungry lizardlings need lots of love, lot’s of food and lots of gu-guidance…, For the first, we promise to always be there for them, so we are moving to-to-to- the surface…”

 

“M-mom, d-dad are you sure?” Alphys felt her soul grow warm and fuzzy, this was wonderful news.

 

“Yes, Alphys, we want to be closer to our grand-lizards.” Alphonse smiled.

 

“FAMILY NEEDS TO STICK TOGETHER-KEEP READING!” Carvata looked excited for part two.

 

“F-for the second check your freezer.” Undyne ran to the freezer…

 

What looked like the majority of the cow that was not currently soup had been crammed into it.

 

“Awesome! Thanks momma-Alphys!” Undyne and Alphys would be making steaks for the next three years.

 

Undyne read the last part of the note,

 

“And lastly, we have started a school fund for them… they can use it for college, or to start careers. They each have-” Undyne cut it off politely.

 

“Oh-oh mom, dad, you didn’t have to.”

 

“WELL, education is important. Alphonse growled. And you are our ONLY daughter.”

 

Alphys and Undyne were struck between tears of happiness and hugging everyone a good three more times.

 

Everyone got a second baggie of pretzels, and Grillby heroically volunteered to clean up the wrapping paper. It would keep his flame healthy.  The monsters stared at the pool with the eggs, waiting for another half an hour, chatting excitedly.

 

A splashing sound was heard!

 

They crowded around the kiddie pool just as the yellow egg began to tear open!

 

*****************************************************************************************


	26. Happy Birthday little monsters...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Undyne and Alphys eggs hatch... everyone is excited to see the little monsters in a very fluffy chapter.

As predicted the little yellow monster egg was the first to begin to tear open! It’s tiny soul lit up a brilliant yellow! It would have been hard to make out through the yellow shell, except that it glowed like the sun.

 

And from the yellow egg… everyone gasped as a surprisingly blue clawed hand started to rip the shell, at first slowly, and then with a shredding sound as pointed teeth broke though the rest in an instant! A small blue-red monsterling emerged, ripping its entrapments into the water, slipping, and then flailing in the water so quickly that no one could quite make them out.

 

Undyne rushed herself into the water and immediately scooped the newborn up, cradling them into her soaking arms. Everyone stood back as the two mothers looked at their first hatchling. Alphys and Undyne looked at their little monsterling and were a bit surprised. The monsterling was a little dinosaur.

 

“No-No gills?”

 

The tiny lizard that had appeared yellow until yesterday was in fact mostly Alphys shaped, with a bright blue body and vibrant red head spikes that matched Alphys crown. The little monsterling had Undyne’s teeth and yellow glowy eyes and a red extra pair of horns right over their eyes, in what was seemingly a throwback to Carvata. Their blue tail swished and they happily snapped their teeth, taking a nibble into Undyne’s arm.

 

“Hey little one! You ready to battle already?”

 

Undyne and Alphys cradled the little lizard, and nuzzled them. It imitated them with a sort of nuzzle head-butt.

 

“She looks so much like you Alphys…” Undyne was happy, they were a little angel.

 

“And like you Undyne! They have your beautiful markings, and mom, they have your horns!” Alphys was so overjoyed she could not stutter.

 

“Come say hello everyone!” Undyne was careful to keep tight hold on the little squiggling monsterling. Alphonse pulled out what looked like an old Polaroid camera and held it up as Carvata leaned over the monsterling. As he snapped the photo the monsterling let out a tiny yellow spear that poked Carvata’s nose for 0.1 HP.

 

Alphonse captured the moment! Carvata was ecstatic.

 

“OOH SHE TAKES AFTER GRANDMA! AND OF COURSE SHE HAS YOUR FIGHTING SPIRIT UNDYNE!” Carvata let out a roar of happiness!

 

“Such a healthy happy baby!” Urdyne smiled at the little one.

 

“They have Undyne’s magic it appears! Good luck Undyne, those spears hurt.” Cordelia rubbed her head in agony. So many tiny pinpricks to the face…

 

Undyne brought the monsterling around while Alphonse took photos.

 

“Hello little niece-lizard. Uncle Coral loves you.” Coral stuck out their tongue at the little fish monster, who immediately copied the move with great relish.

 

“Heh, that always worked to get Undyne to stop biting.” Coral looked happy.

 

“NYEH HEH HEH…COOCHIE COOCHIE COO…OW!” Papyrus tried to tickle the monsterling, but he couldn’t quite stick a tongue out, so he had his finger bitten.

 

“…Congratulations….Undyne, Alphys….” Grillby smiled at the little Dino Monster as it tried to bite his face in vain.

 

As everyone met the monsterling a wave of happiness poured into everyone’s souls.

 

Before anyone could spend too long fawning over and or being devoured by the monsterling the orange egg began to shake like crazy!

 

“WOAH!” Coral pointed to the little orange egg. It was hopping up and down, so much so that it was causing the green egg to roll more. A little blue soul lit up and shone clearly.

 

The egg hopped and finally bounced to the water’s surface as it gently tore open a tiny tear.

 

Through the small opening a little yellow monsterling slipped out into the water. The little monsterling was swimming well. They darted around the pool to and fro! Alphys leaned over, lowering her head to pool height, and her arm into the water. The monsterling cautiously swam to her and grabbed her beak. Alphys smiled and gently scooped them out of the water.

 

As predicted, the little orange egg looked just like Undyne: gills, no tail, large side fins on their head, and a patch of hair on their head.  Although they had Alphys coloring: yellow body and orange tufts of hair, little orange head fins on the side, and sweet orange eyes. They timidly looked at the room around them, and then shyly nestled into Alphys’s chest. Alphys covered the hatchling with her arm, and the monsterling squirmed to carefully poke their head out between the crack.

 

As Undyne moved closer, the little blue dinosaur monster reached their tail towards their sibling and the little orange one curiously touched it with a little finger.

 

“H-He is a little shy…” Alphys gently brought herself to Undyne so she could say hello.

 

“He looks so thoughtful…” Alphonse leaned over them. No little spears came flying out, but they ducked back into Alphys’ arm crevice.

 

Cordelia leaned in and crooned to the child,

 

“There-there little one…” Cordelia hummed and the little fish monster seemed to relax. He tried to imitate the noise, making a tiny squeaking chirp.

 

“I do not think they have magic, except maybe a singing spell voice.” Cordelia hummed more and the little monsterling made a buzzing noise in imitation.

 

“NYEH HEH HEH… Undyne they are a tiny golden version of you!”

 

“nya!” The little monsterling imitated Papyrus.

 

“OOH they are trying to talk already! Say ‘grandpa’” Alphonse smiled at the little Undyne.

 

“oogh!”

 

“..oo0000….” Grillby tried to say hello in fire-speak…

 

The monsterling just looked confused and waved their arms.

 

“i think he’s impersonating your flames, love” Sans smiled.

 

Everyone laughed, again a wave of happiness filled the room.

 

A whirring sound could be heard!

 

Everyone turned to the kiddie pool, the last egg was spinning and spinning in circles! A feint green heart lit up through the thick sparkly shell and then a tapping noise could be heard, as though the monsterling was trying to chip out of the harder egg. The group waited with bated breath...the minutes ticked by…punctuated by rhythmic tapping *pech *peck *peck *pe-cRICK

 

 

Finally! A tiny chip of egg flew into the air before falling back into the pool. Undyne the little blue dinosaur firmly, but was ready to scoop the last monsterling up.  The egg was more dino-like, so it may not have gills. The cracks at the top of the shell near the hole widened, revealing little green head spikes!

 

A tiny green head broke through the egg. Their face was all green and shaped like Alphys but with a little red side fin and gills. Undyne relaxed for a second.

 

Grillby figured they would be a green Alphys with aquatic abilities. The hatchling stuggled with the shell for a minute, but then tiny little green and red clawed fins pushed out. The small hand-fins grabbed at and broke more shell freeing the arms, which helped pushed down on the shell. The little monster seemed to be struggling to break through the last section. Undyne started to move to help, but Urdyne held her back!

 

“Give them a few seconds champ, it is safest if they can get out alone.”

 

Undyne and Alphys moved together, as their little monsterling painstakingly pushed out of the egg. It let out a sad little whine.

 

“Go-go on, kick out- little one…” Alphys was ready to break the shell herself. Qere their legs ok? Were they still injured from the lightning?

 

The little monster flailed, and thrashed in the water until they were submerged in the pool. Undyne looked concerned but again Urdyne held her back.

 

“Look! She’s clever!”

 

The little green monster swam to the edge of the pool, and proceeded to rub the stuck shell against it while swimming. Eventually the shell got caught on the wall and a long red shimmering tail kicked out of it: no legs, just a long mermaid tail.

 

Everyone gasped.

 

The happy little monsterling swam through the water wiggling its very long tail up and down, and then side to side like a snake. Undyne reached into the pool with her arm that was not busy holding the first monsterling and the little hatchling happily grabbed on with both their arms and tail, which seemed to be able to coil slightly. She looked like a little mer-dinosaur.

 

Sans could not help but notice that the little monsterling had a tiny black mark on the side of their back that ran into their tail.  The little monster seemed fine though, they let out a squeak and happily thrashed their tail when Undyne examines it. The tail was really pretty. It was red, but seemed to shimmer with different colors: blue, purple, orange, yellow, and a tiny spot of dark blue- the colors of the spell that had healed the child.

 

“She is fine… I-I’m so relieved…”

 

Everyone had been worried about the little green monster egg. Undyne introduced the green monsterling to everyone. Cordelia examined her closely.

 

“no magic… but she is very healthy!”

 

The little one sneezed on cue.  Undyne and Alphys immediately grabbed the little baby shirts that Sans and Grillby had brought since they were right there.

 

“maybe you need a nice warm shirt?”

 

The little blue dinosaur needed the second size category immediately. The shirt Sans and Grillby had gotten thankfully had a little flap at the back and the tail could poke out easily.

 

The little yellow Undyne-like monsterling fit into the newborn shirt perfectly and snuggled into it.

 

Little green monsterling had to have the bottom of the shirt unsnapped and the newborn shirt seemed to dwarf her slightly.

 

All three little monsterlings let out tiny squeaks, now that they were warm it was time to eat…

 

“Oh…” Undyne smiled.

 

“They seem hungry! Lets do the Soul Parent ceremony so we can give them some baby grub.”

 

“O-okay, everyone come form a circle over here.” Alphys had an area cleared in preparation.

 

Coral, Ugly, Papyrus, Grillby, Sans, Bunny, and Doggo stepped forward…the grandparents usually did not take part in the ceremony. Cordalia and Urdyne watched curiously, this was a dinosaur monster custom.

 

Alphys stood in the center,

 

“So-so I-I was worried that we would not get to do a s-soul parent ceremony. Neither of us have a large family…and you are supposed to let the monsterlings choose between at least five m-monsters. Bu-but after you all worked so hard to help us in-in our time of need.  Well I believe all of you truly care about us and-and our monsterlings” Alphys paused. Her face was starting to flush.

“My soul parent helped me form my love of science when I was little and always helped me not be discouraged. They were there for my first science fair and my first unsuccessful try at ice hockey. I always felt like I could go to th-them for advice. If they were still here today…I would tell them how much I love them and thank them for all their help.”

 

Alphys looked sad for a moment, before finishing,

 

“So-so we hope that you will be with our monsterlings as they grow… help them make good choices… to be the best monsters they can be…”

 

Undyne stepped up…

 

“So this is important! Think about what your HOPES and DREAMS for the little guys are! The monsterlings will sense your energy and choose who they want as their soul parent.”

 

“O-ok. Here we go!”

 

Undyne and Alphys stood back to back, each facing some of the monsters. Undyne facing Ugly, Coral, Bunny and Papyrus while Alphys faced Sans, Doggo, and Grillby.

 

Everyone thought of their happiest hopes and dreams for the little ones. Each knelt down or sat on the floor, read for the monsterlings to approach one of them. Undyne lowered her squirming dino-doppelganger. The child stood up, using their tail to balance on two legs. Now out of water they seemed sure of themselves!

 

The little blue and red dinosaur monsterling immediately started to run around the group in circles. They ran towards Doggo, then to Coral, then around a bit.

 

The little monsterling was sensing the monsters hopes for them...

_I hope you grow up big and strong!_

_I hope you are fearless!_

_I hope you are healthy._

_I hope you are smart._

_I hope you are kind like your mother… a true friend…_

The little monster stopped running willy nilly. They stopped, turned around and then made a beeline for Papyrus- chomping hard on his outreached hand.

 

“OWIE!”

 

“CONGRATS Paps! You are a Soul Parent!”

 

Papyrus was tearing up both from joy and from the immense pain his bony fingers were going through. The little monster would not let go of his hand. He supposed this was what Alphys meant by a special bond? He politely popped off his hand and let the little monster roll around and wrestle with it. She was adorable, but he hoped he would get the hand back. Alphys brought over one of Doggo’s squeaky badger toys, which the little monster chomped into and then dropped the hand.

 

Undyne and Alphys rejoiced gave Paps a quick hug. The three of them were so close, it was a special bond.

 

The dino-monsterling now busied themselves running back and forth between Papyrus and her moms. Sans gave Papyrus a pat on the back as he backed out of the circle. Monsterling number two was up.

 

Alphys knelt and placed the little yellow and orange monster boy…whom immediately clung to Alphys leg for dear life. Again, the day was saved by sibling action. The little red and blue monsterling went up to them and poked him with her tail. The little yellow-orange monster squeaked and then cautiously walked around the circle…

 

_hey, buddy, I’ll keep you safe._

_I hope you are curious and full of wonder_

_I hope you like school._

_Relax little guy…I hope you have a free spirit…that you enjoy life…_

The little yellow monster glanced at Sans and Bunny and carefully… cautiously inched towards Bunny, whose paw was gently resting on the ground. Not having a tail for poke testing things, the little monsterling cautiously resorted to reaching their own hand cautiously to touch Bunny’s fuzzy paw.

 

The monsterling squeaked in apparent happiness at the fuzzy sensation and then immediately clung to Bunny.

 

“oh, dear, hey little one.”

 

“O-Oh Bunny, thank-thank you so much!”

 

Bunny giggled as the little guy nuzzled into her again. Alphonse took an adorable polaroid photo.

 

“Hey little guy, don’t worry auntie Bunny’s got your back!”

 

Bunny also let out little sniffles of joy as she left the circle.

 

Finally, the little green monster was lowered down. How would they get around?

 

The little green mer-dinosaur slithered around the circle. They stopped a few times, falling over and rolling, but were doing ok and carefully surveying everyone…

 

_I hope you are adventurous_

_I hope you are healthy_

_I hope you are thoughtful_

_I hope no matter what life throws at you… that you are brave…_

The little monster slithered around one more time and stopped at Grillby. She looked at his very scary fiery hand. Everyone watched nervously as the monsterling carefully bumped into Grillby’s hand head first, but of course they were fine.

 

“…you are quite the bold one…” Grillby rubbed their head spikes gently.

 

“Grillby, you will be the PERFECT soul parent!”

 

Undyne helped Grillby hold the monsterling and had Papyrus and Bunny do the same with their respective Soul children for a nice photo. Grillby felt a rush of happiness as he helped the monsterling. Wow…this was really special.

 

The little monsterlings went back to their mommas, who carefully held them and rocked them.

 

Everyone took some dinner and brought it into the living room. Undyne and Alphys carefully tried to spoon feed their children some cooled meat stew which the little blue dinosaur monster gobbled six spoonfuls of, even managing to chew a tiny piece of meat!

 

Alphys and Undyne sighed in relief as all three ate spoonfuls of various cut up food… they were lucky all three had their teeth in.

 

Little yellow Undyne slurped up some soup, but then ignored it for tiny pieces of Papyrus’ bread rolls.

 

The little green monsterling enjoyed some seaweed salad and mostly ignored the meat.

 

All three had a tiny baby piece of apple tart which stood no chance against the babies and the group of hungry family and friends. Undyne had a third piece.

 

“oh, no, undyne are you going to have another batch?” Sans teased the fish monster.

 

“Sorry Sans, you will have to be some other kid’s Soul parent…we stop at three.”

 

Undyne and Alphys had their hands full. On cue, one of the monsterlings sneezed up some apple tart onto themselves. Alphys rushed to clean it up.

 

The three little monsterlings looked full after a few more spoonfuls and began to close their eyes and yawn.

 

Undyne and Alphys decided it was time for bed. Alphonse took a few more pictures of the little monsters as Sans and Coral helped drag the cribs into Undyne and Alphy’s bedroom and the monsterlings were tucked in for the night.

 

Before anyone went home for the evening, Undyne and Alphys secretly whispered to each other, pulling out a tiny piece of paper and nodding together.

 

“So, we thought about it, and we have decided, we should share their names.”

 

Everyone smiled. Sans wondered what the two had actually decided on.

 

“W-We thought about it, and of all our favorites, these fit each the best...”

 

“We went back and forth… but decided we wanted to call out how the are fighters- and how they will be strong, no matter what life throws at them. So we picked names to reflect the storm they got through with your help.”

 

Undyne walked up to the crib with the tiny blue dinosaur, who even in their sleep was thrashing.

 

“This little girl is Nariko. It is a Japanese name for Thunder. We think she is going to be a bit of a fighter... and well… we both love the name.”

 

Sans was not surprised that at least one of the names was Japanese considering their love of anime.

 

“Alphys walked up to the little yellow Undyne-like monsterling.

 

“We decided on Rinan, English for rain. He seems to be the most peaceful.”

 

Rinan was, tucked into the fuzzy blanket Bunny had made, nuzzling into it, not quite asleep.

 

And Undyne walked up to the last monsterling…who was sucking on her tail…

 

“And for our little green one… Damini… and Indian name meaning lightning. She…she’s gone through a lot and doesn’t even know it.”

 

“…what lovely names…”

 

“I LIKE it even better than a combo!” Alphonse roared to Alphys relief.

 

“Actally I think we have an ancestor named Nariko, excellent!” Cordellia was happy, too.

 

After a few more minute of cootchie-cooing at the babies, Alphys and Undyne were ready to try to rest with their newborns.

 

Sans Grillby and Papyrus each gave one last smile to each of the monsterlings before heading out. Grillby squeezed Sans hand. Undyne and Alphys opened the magical music box, and the little monsterlings all settled into their beds.

 

*******************************************************************************

 

“so grillbabe, did you ever think you’d be the soul parent to a fish monster?”

 

“…not gonna lie… I am overjoyed… I will support them with whatever they would like… I’ll even try to help them join a swim team… I feel like we have a special connection…

 

Sans and Grillby smiled, as they settled down for the night. Both snuggled into Sans’ comforter and talked about their hopes for the monsterlings…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case anyone is wondering Carvata is based off of a carnotaurus... 
> 
> I hope everyone enjoys the monsterlings... Sans and Grillby will probably be babysitting quite a bit...Thank you all for reading! Maybe more tomorrow...


	27. In which an epic summer vacation begins...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time to have some fun on vacation... hopefully everyone can have a blast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the slow update... visited family over the weekends, this and another part should be up by tonight :D Get ready for Death Valley... and then Vegas...

 

After Undyne and Alphys’ hatching, life got busy for a few weeks. Papyrus found himself filling his schedule. School had let out, so to prevent being bored he had taken a few extra shifts at Grillby’s, which he was really starting to enjoy. He remembered actually disliking the place back in Snowdin, but now he was spending more time in the restaurant than Sans.

 

The tall skeleton had improved a lot since he first started. His cooking was good quality, and he could now juggle orders with ease without getting so distracted… Sure he occasionally dropped a plate, or burnt a burger, but no more often than Cindy.

 

He was proud to be at a place with his cooking where he could add little flourishes- ketchup smiley-faces for the kid’s fries and grilled cheeses cut into shapes. Papyrus turned to look at Grillby, who had been teaching him how to do cream design in coffee. Papyrus was getting a cat down pretty well, but Grillby looked…burnt out.

 

Grillby had been working pretty nonstop. The weekend rolled over without much of a pause, and now, on Monday afternoon his flame was running low and Papyrus caught him chugging a bottle of lighter fluid.

 

It dawned on Papyrus that Grillby both opened and closed the restaurant and that the only time he wasn’t working was when Sans peeled him away (So parts of the evenings and weekends). Grillby was more of a workaholic than himself!

 

“NYEH…GRILLBY…DO YOU NEED A BREAK?”

 

“…Oh…don’t… worry…I am made… of energy…”

 

“GRILLBY... YOUR ARM IS SHAKING”

 

“…My arm is made of fire, so it always moves…”

 

“NO, SEE…”

 

Papyrus gave Grillby a coffee mug with one of his cat creations. The mug shook and the cat turned to a blur.

 

“…Ahh.. that was a nice one, too… but…well… I am taking a vacation next week, so I need to…uh…work more now…”

 

Cindy, turned around from washing dishes,

 

“Hey bossman, if you work yourself to death you can’t go on vacation.”

 

“…I’m…ok… monsters…. can rest less than humans…I think…”

 

“EVEN I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS NEED SLEEP SOMETIMES… NYEH HEH HEH. DO NOT TELL SANS I SAID THAT.”

 

Grillby looked at his arm- dang. He was pushing himself over the edge again. But the world stopped for a minute as Grillby thought.

 

Grillby then realized he was staring at the floor while Paps and Cindy looked at him in worry. Oops, Grillby nodded,

 

“…ok…I’ll head out for a bit…”

 

Grillby headed upstairs and put his head to a pillow for a quick nap. He would be back in no time!

 

He ran down the stairs after he woke up six hours later. His employees had managed fine without him and had even closed for the night with the spare key. Wow, what great employees. He really should thank them!

 

Grillby sent out an email, and curled into bed once more.

 

*****************************************************

 

Grillby had called a last minute surprise meeting for all staff early Tuesday morning before opening. Papyrus remembered the surprise meetings at the diner he had been working at before. They usually ended in someone being fired-he doubted Grillby would do that, but still it was natural to be nervous. He had broken a few plates last night after all.

 

He went to the back of the kitchen with Cindy, who seemed nervous as well. Red, Bobby, and Dom trickled in- all quiet.

 

“Oh god, he’s gonna cut one of us huh?” Dom was sweating like crazy.

 

“REALLY, YOU THINK SO?” Papyrus frowned and tried not to magically sweat.

 

“No, Grillbz wouldn’t do that if he could help it, and I think the business has been going fine.” Still, Red looked worried- he had taken a lot of sick days lately.

 

Everyone talked nervously. Grillby walked in right on time...

 

...right in time to see everyone huddled and whispered. What the?

 

“…Good morning everyone… thank you for coming in…why don’t we all take a seat…?”

 

Grillby was alarmed to see that his suggestion to sit down made everyone look even more edgy.

 

“…uhm.. I… hope you are all doing well… I simply want to discuss a few things going forward… and make sure everyone who is working here is as…happy as possible… and thank you for the last couple of months…so…surprise…” Grillby went into the fridge and pulled out a neatly decorated vanilla cake with red sprinkles that spelled out THANK YOU and also an apple tart.

 

“huh?” Dom seemed confused.

 

“…Oh I am sorry… if this is weird for humans…but my favorite old boss Underground would do this sort of thing occasionally… and I felt awful I hadn’t done something before Charlene and Flopsy left for college… also I want your opinion on a new menu item.”

 

“YOU DON’T WANT TO FIRE ANYONE?”

 

Grillby looked confused for a second,

 

“…um… why would I attack…oh…”

 

Grillby’s blank face flickered and formed a sad jack-o’-lantern frown. They must have worked at some lousy places.

 

“…oh you mean…let someone go…no… you are all wonderful employees… perhaps next time I will send a less… secretive email.…?”

 

Cindy, Dom, Red, and Papyrus sighed with relief. Bobby smiled and cut everyone a massive piece of cake and a piece of tart. It was a nice, if unhealthy, breakfast.

 

“…you have all worked here long enough now that I want you to feel like you have a stake in the restaurant… and that if you have any complaints we can address… them…I am hoping that perhaps the first Monday of each month can be an employee meeting…make sure everything is going ok…”

 

The group happily munched on the cake and listened to Grillby, who was feeling pretty bad that his employees had been worried about him firing them.

 

“…So the restaurant has been busier than I have ever seen it in my life…thanks to your hard work… and also partly thanks to the new…events…karaoke… football…and trivia nights… all pull pretty reliable human and monster crowds… I have also had success… with the new brunch hours…which have mostly attracted small families…and very sleepy college kids…lunch is probably our slowest time… unless we get a party reservation…”

 

The group nodded along. Ok they all seemed interested.

 

“…The menu is small… While we could add one or two new items…I want to avoid overcrowding it … I would rather stick to a few reliable items… from my experience…if you spread too thin… you end up with higher food waste… and less ability to make the food great… I would love to hear… if you have any ideas… and also if there are any shifts you might prefer to switch to… now would be ideal… before I hire another server or cook… now that the rabbit sisters have left…?”

  
Grillby took out a notepad and a pen and turned to Red.

 

“Well, Grillbz, things seem to be going ok… Some of the guys said they would be interested in a cards night on Mondays… I just prefer the low-key nights in general…. Trivia night has been pretty stressful for me though… even if you co-bartend with me, they can be relentless is all…”

 

“… would you prefer a different shift…?”

 

“are there any other free nights?”

 

“Actually…I don’t mind a rowdier crowd.” Dom looked up. 

 

“Red, would you want to take Sunday? I’m not really a sports nut, and well, I might like the extra tips that come with a crowd.”

 

“Yes please! Most of the old crew comes by then anyway.” Red would enjoy seeing his buddies.

 

“…I think… we can also have a few tables for cards or games… our area allows cards in bars…but we need to put signs up and make it clear you can’t bet money on them…”

 

Grillby in some ways missed the looser restrictions Underground. Cindy looked up,

 

“Oh, I have an idea! During the mornings you have a lot of kids right? Maybe get little coloring pages for them? I love making word searches, and my brother does design, he could print a few samples for you, see if you like them?”

 

“…that sounds nice actually…the kids would love that…”

 

Don suggested having a daily specials drink chalkboard at the bar and an extra dartboard, and Bobby asked if he could work more hours in the summer. Papyrus was up.

 

“NYEH, I LIKE BOTH COOKING AND SERVING… UM, AND I THINK I MAY LIKE MAKING BREAKFAST FOODS MORE. SO I WOULD BE UP FOR A MORNING SHIFT. I DON’T TEACH GYM CLASS TILL THE AFTERNOONS ANWAY.”

 

The group talked for another fifteen minutes. Everyone liked the tart, and agreed that it would be a fun all-day item to try out! Grillby promised to revise the schedule, and implement the new ideas. Everyone also promised to give him their vacation times, excellent!

 

******************************************************

Grillby loved the new schedule! All the full time employees had 40 hours, except Red who had 39 (but who also tended to volunteer for make-up shifts), and Dom who had 48, but had asked for the extra hours.

 

Grillby had really grown to believe in Papyrus- he was a great employee, and was really passionate about cooking. Thus, Grillby trusted Papyrus, the earliest of early birds, to open the restaurant everyday with a new server. The new server was Jiggles, a red ghost monster who used magic to lift multiple plates with ease.

 

Papyrus and Jiggles worked from 8AM till 2PM, and 9 AM till 2PM weekends. Papyrus might need to cut back once school started, but Grillby was fine with covering the time if need be.

 

On weekdays, Cindy joined Papyrus in the kitchen at noon, and stayed until 8 with a second new server, Stan, the Thundereplane. Stan had an odd method of carrying the food in his storage cargo hold.

 

For bartending and serving help, Red was on Saturday-Tuesday noon to close, Grillby tended bar Monday-Friday noon to closing, and Dom was on Wednesday- Saturday nights, noon-midnight. Bobby helped out part-time serving 5PM-9PM Wednesday- Saturday.

 

Finally, Grillby hired a part time cook for weekends to overlap with Papyrus… 9AM-6PM. The cook was a Love-craftian squid headed monster woman named Beaks, who mostly kept to herself and had a habit of snapping said beak menacingly during conversation.

 

Grillby himself was scheduled for 54 hours which was closer to what he had done Underground AND which according to a human study he read was only 4 hours over the point at which productivity suffers, so that felt…slightly better.

 

If he was being honest, he knew that this schedule could probably be reduced as well, but he needed to do it in little steps. It was bad enough to let go of checking in every morning or weekend, but if he wanted Sans HP to go up so much, he should take care of his own, too.

 

With everyone shifted to their adjusted schedules, Grillby had some spare time in the morning. He didn’t feel like cooking, and MTT was doing re-runs, so he decided to prep for the trip.

Sans had mysteriously asked for the itinerary, and asked if he could schedule something fun for part of the journey. Fiametta and Afi were pretty excited to find out what this mysterious activity was and had been asking Grillby for hints, but Sans had wanted to surprise Grillby, too. So all the elemental knew was that Sans had to make sure no one was 220 lbs or more in weight and that it would be one of the days the group would specifically be at the canyon.

 

Fiametta and Afi were planning the trip, but had asked others if there was anything they wanted to do in the area off of a list of options. Grillby had picked a forest park since he was excited to see a bunch of trees. Magmus had picked some boring sounding monument thing. Why Magmus wanted to see human monuments was beyond Grillby. Grillby decided to get some things ready for the road trip: sandwiches, a playlist…

 

 

 

*******************************************************************************

 

Saturday Morning, a green-flamed Grillby nervously went over things with Papyrus one last time.

 

“AND IF THE FOOD INSPECTORS COME, I WILL MAKE SURE TO MOVE THE LIGHTER FLUID OUT OF THE FOOD CABINET. DO NOT WORRY GRILLBY I READ BOTH YOUR VERY LONG AND DETAILED EMAILS AS WELL AS THE HUMAN’S BAR CODE LAWS.”

 

Papyrus and Grillby stood in Sans’ bedroom doorway while he unpacked.

 

Papyrus had initially packed for Sans, and there were so many items, that it would not fit in Grillby’s trunk with everyone else’ stuff.

 

Sans gave Catsup a tiny hug, and lifted him out of his travel bag. The cat had sensed something was up, and had tried to wedge his kitty self into the suitcase.

 

Catsup had been pretty bad last night. The cat pushed Grillby’s head off the pillow last night to be closer to Sans. Sans supposed he should be glad Catsup was no longer scared of the elemental.

 

Sans removed two of the three pairs of sunglasses, the suntan lotion, the bathing suit, the Junior Jumble travel books, and to mostly Papyrus’ disappointment the large portrait of Papyrus. He kept some clothes, a water-bottle, a bag of emergency ketchup packets, a few pens and stamps and a camera. He was going to write Papyrus a postcard from every location possible.

 

With that the contents now fit into a backpack. With one final spine-popping hug from Papyrus, Grillby and Sans hit the road!

 

*************************************************************************************

 

Magmus was a large yellow molten magma monster, who was much more viscous and filled with blocky breccia than his father. He was much hotter, too, a fact that Sans realized sitting between the two in the backseat. Sans used to being put in the middle seat due to his stature, but he wasn’t sure if this was better or worse than being a pile of bones stuck between two drooling dog monsters.

 

Sans would perhaps find comfort in the fact that Magmus and Afi were equally uncomfortable. Both were trying as hard as possible to contain themselves in their own seats, but Magmus’ dried breccia clumps kept poking the skeleton’s arm. Magmus was looking forward to getting to know Grillby’s boyfriend. Afi and Fiametta actually liked this one! Before Magmus could start talking to the guy, Afi started again.

 

“…HoOO…hOOO hOOO…so sANs…yOU…. AND…GriLLBERT…planning on getting married anythime sOON…hOO HOO hOOO.”

 

Sans decided this was worse than being sandwiched between the dogs.

 

Magmus decided to help his little half-brother out,

 

“…ThAT… is ridiculous fATHER… LITTLE Grillby is..wHAT…onLY… sixtEEN...?”

 

“…I’m twenty-six…actually… Mag…” Grillby entered the highway and managed to hit the speed limit.

 

“…Oops…Well with that hAIr… reALLy? I was only off… by a deCADE…sorry…but wow…my little FIRBRO… is all grown up...” Magmus sighed, steam exiting his mouth.

 

“…Why does no one…like my green hair… FUKU is green… everyone likes her…” Grillby sighed as he entered the highway.

 

“…blue is mORE Your color bRO. I remember when…you were a little hotspot… did he tell you how he used to get rEALLY bLUE… and burn through his things…chAIrs…pANTS… that poor Teddy BEAR…” Magmus continued. Sans imagined a tiny Grillby setting things on fire constantly. The skeleton smiled.

 

Fiametta chimed in,

 

“…Oh… Afi and I…sewed that thing up a good… ten times…what… did you call it…”

 

“…I… don’t remember…mother… let’s talk about somethi-”

 

“…I remEMBER!...IT wAS… MR. BEar...” Afi had a good memory.

 

“…Well…he’s kind of like Asgore…in that regard… Sans…make sure you name the monsterlings…” Fiametta sighed.

 

“…I become more creative at….names…” Grillby truly felt he was better now.

 

“…bRO…you named…yoUR… bar…Grillby’s…not super creatIVE…hEH hEH hEH” Magmus laughed.

 

Grillby’s flames went from green to a greenish blue.

 

“Oh..Grillbert!… you were such an unruly monsterling…Sans… did you know when Grillbert was young he decided he was going to be an explorer… and leave the ruins!... He managed to take the raft to Snowdin… he climbed a tree… but he was having trouble keeping his arms together…you know how that is…”

 

“oh, yeah.” Sans could actually relate!

 

“when i was a kid, my arms would pop off all the time. paps had a lot of trouble with that, too”

 

“…Poor little Grillbert…he got so upset…he burned the whole tree down…he was so embarrassed… he was blue for a week… but what strong magic for a young monster…shame he never joine-” Fiametta

 

“…wow…yes…excellent…I just remembered I made this CD, the one I asked you all for your favorite songs for?...Why don’t I put it on right now…”

 

Grillby did not want Sans to hear the chronicles of every single embarrassing thing he had done as a kid.

 

Wait- crap- songs you sent me?

 

Sans suddenly felt his magical stomach sink… was that what Grillby had wanted a song list for? Crap, Grillby had asked when Sans was at work, and Sans had sent Grillby a trolling list of songs.

 

“oh grillbz, you can skip over mine, they are pretty boring.”

 

“…No… Sans… everyone gets… a turn, do not… feel like you have to be polite…”

 

Sans was wondering how safe it was to shortcut out of a moving vehicle.

 

First Fiametta’s song came on. Sans could barely make out the words. It mostly sounded like crackling fire. Every once in a while what sounded like a high pitched fire-elemental sang an operatic note.

 

“…Hoo…HoOO… Fiametta that song really brings me back…”

 

Afi’s song was similar, although a bit more like bubbling lava. At least it had some background instrumentals.

 

Then Magmus- the twang of country music was accompanied by firework-noises. Sans could make the words out better. Something about a woman who scorned him?

 

“...I…recorded it myself…”

 

“…Oh…very…nice Magmus…” Sans could tell by the way that Fiametta’s flame flickered he probably didn’t have a future as a country singer.

 

Then Grillby’s, which was _I want to be Sedated_ by the Ramones. Fiametta, Magmus, and Afi sighed.

 

Then the moment of truth...

 

When Grillby had asked Sans to make him a list he had not necessarily taken it seriously.

_~ Sitting here eating my heart out baby…waiting for some lover to call!_

_Looking for some hot stuff…gotta have some hot stuff tonight!_

Donna Summer’s Hot stuff echoed through the car. Sans entire list was romantic songs about fire to bother Grillby with.

 

“Hoo..hOO..Hoo… I love this song…” Afi started to sing along with Magmus. Fiamettta still seemed terse, but Sans hoped it was just Magmus’ singing.

 

Sans tried to smile at Grillby, who hopefully for the last time this car ride was turning a bit blue. So much for green hair.

 

**************************************************************

 

 

The playlist of fire-opera, punk music, country, and songs with shitty fire puns continued uninterrupted for a few hours.

 

Normally Grillby would offer to put on the AC for Sans, but Sans had noticed something funny about Afi. The normally very flowing body was not shifting and it may just be he car’s light but he looked less... red?

 

“OOH..hOO…HOO…! Look at that!...” Afi burbled in excitement! Along the highway some really tall pine trees were growing by a lake, which had a family of ducks in it.

 

“…Oh…wow! Tall Trees!...” Fiametta

 

“…oH..wOW..dUCKS…” Magmus exclaimed….

 

Sans had forgotten that this was one of the first times the gang had been on the surface.

 

“…Do you want…me… to pull over…?” Grillby pulled over onto the large shoulder of the highway… and four fire-monsters and a skeleton walked out to look at the sights.

 

As soon as everyone was out of the car, Sans scrambled to drink as much water as he possibly could while Grillby and Fiametta posed with the tree. Magmus and Afi carefully went to the edge of the lake and asked if Sans could take pictures of the tiny ducklings with his camera. Sans obliged, and even got his feet a little wet to get a few good shots of them swimming around quaking merrily.

 

“…If…oNLY…I hAD some bread…SON…These creATURES love…bREAD…I used to feed them back hOME with my MOTHer…” Afi sighed. Afi looked a bit sad, Grillby jumped to attention.

 

“…Oh yes…ducks are fun to feed…” Grillby recalled his past date with Sans.

 

“I did bring a sandwich…it was for Sans…do you mind if I take off the crusts?... I could give them a few pieces…” Grillby looked at Sans.

 

“go right a-bread.” Sans winked.

 

Grillby smiled and went to the trunk and carefully ripped off the crust of Sans sandwich.

 

Grillby gave everyone a few chunks of bread crust and Sans carefully put a magical glow around Grillby as he and Afi bravely approached the shoreline.

 

Grillby turned to Sans,

 

“…Sans… I can see the tide.. you do not have to make a little barrier…”

 

“just for safety but ok.” Sans should probably not constantly treat Grillby like he had never seen water before.

 

Afi slightly toasted his bread crusts and then, with a surprisingly nimble toss threw some crumbs into the water.

 

The others watched gleefully as the largest ducks made a beeline for the bread, followed by their tiny duckling hoard!

 

The two big ducks gobbled up the bread crusts. Grilbly, Fiametta and Magmus tossed all their crumbs in right away. Sans got a few really cute pictures! It was adorable watching the tiny duckling nimbly munch on the bread, and Afi looked so happy.

 

“…Sans…look at those two…tiny ducklings…they are getting left behind…” Grillby’s hair sparked…the two ducklings in the back were having a hard time…

 

“…AH..bRO…that is natURE…they may not mAKE it…”

 

Grillby looked a bit down. In the Underground, there were not a lot of wild non-monster animals: shrimp, millipedes, snails, salamanders, spiders, tiny crayfish, crabs, and fish. Those were the interesting ones, and most lived in the water. Because the monsters depended on these few animals for food, they were pretty heavily farmed, and always well fed.

 

Sans refused to have an even slightly sad Grillby, so he floated his two big unbroken chunks of crust over to them. The bread crusts were almost as big as the little ducks themselves.

 

“…Oh goOD…some bread for every…battakh……” Afi also looked happy to see every duckling got a treat, and his magma started to shift very slightly over his face. Grillby gave Sans a quick hug.

 

The small ducklings got a few good nibbles before their siblings swarmed in.

 

Flashing blue and red lights suddenly reflected into the lake. The ducks quacked frantically and floated back into the water.

 

A human police officer ran out of the car and up to the family. The large human man was tall and muscled, with a grey neatly trimmed mustache. He ran quickly to the lake, shouting at the group.

 

“Young man! Remain calm, I am about to call an ambu-" and then stopped short once he saw it was a group of elementals were not a roadside fire, but monsters on fire… and that the young boy on fire was actually a skeleton being...hugged by a fire person?

 

Grillby panicked a bit.

 

“…Oh…officer… I…am sorry…is this…illegal..Oh…Agore…are you going to arrest me…?”

 

The older officer frowned at Grillby. The crackling fire man was trying to have a chat with him… uh.

 

Sans thought it might be good if he spoke up.

 

“hey officer. as you can see we are not in any danger, just a couple of fire-monsters, and a skeleton. we just got excited to look at the lake. most of these guys haven’t seen ducks before.”

 

The officer focused on Sans, his eyebrows narrowing, attempting to look authoritative,

 

“Ah good to hear young man!” The officer then addressed the group.

 

“Well this here little puddle is nothing to get excited about, if you want to see wildlife head over to exit 113, people report seeing bears over by the reserve you know! The side of a highway is a little unsafe for a gathering. Can I see your license?”

 

Grillby pulled out his driver's license, which the very amused police officer could not possibly mistake for anyone else.

 

"All right eh...Grillbert. I can tell your...uh, new to the area, so just try to only pull over if you have to."

 

"...Sorry...I did not think...it was illegal to pull...over..."

 

The officer made that one out, and glared slightly at Grillby.

 

“No! It’s not illegal to pull over- I was just making sure you were alright. I, uh, I thought you were a small car fire. From the distance y’all look like one…uh”

 

“…wELL…mY sON and wIFE… are sMALL fires...Hoo..hOO.HOOO.”

 

The police officer recognized that Afi was laughing good-naturedly.

 

“Ahaha, yes, a simple misunderstanding. However, may I ask that since traffic is getting a bit distracted by you, you folks head back onto the highway? If you want I can help you re-merge?”

 

“no problem, we’ll just swim along!” Oh crap, did that count as a pun, now was probably not the time for puns.

 

Sans figured the officer was less asking and more telling, but as he watched the human cars slow down and switch lanes, it would probably be for the best if they did as he asked.

 

The officer got into their patrol car, Sans could hear them talk into their radio.

 

“No uh fire. False alarm. Although I’ve got a story once I get back to the station, over.”

 

The family re-entered the vehicle, and the officer gave them a wave and switched on their lights. Grillby re-entered the highway.


	28. In which we hear the tragic tale of a young volcano

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans and Grillby continue the roadtrip with Grillby's family. The group visit Death Valley and then live the suite life in Vegas. Asgore shelled out so that Hotland residents will sell their old houses, and Grillby is a card shark...

A hundred miles later… and no where close to the end of the mix CD, the group finally made it to the entrance of their first destination.

 

“…Ok, Grillbert…turn here…”

 

Fiametta smiled, as the group turned off the highway, she pulled out a multi paged, color coded itinerary.

 

“…OK, now the vacation begins!…...today we are not going to reach the Grand Canyon… we will be visiting Death Valley…Sans…being a skeleton…I figured you would love it!…”

 

“oh…yes…uh…it’s…to die for…”

 

“…we probably wont see a ton of humans…it is 100oF and rising today…so they are advised to avoid hiking…Personally, I couldn’t think of better weather!”

 

Fiametta glanced at the dull looking Afi. She was going to warm him up somehow.

 

“The first stop is the…Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes….! Humans just walk from the parking lot into the giant piles of Sand!...”

 

Lo and behold, Grillby parked the car in a lot surrounded by mountains of sand. Sandnhad not been super common Underground. Now that they were on the surface, a lot of the more aquatic monsters had been flooding beaches but it really was amazing to see so much of something new.

 

The family got out of the car.

 

“…So there is no trail…?” Grillby looked a bit nervous.

 

“…relAX…sON…We will be fINE… let’s climb… up a dUNE or two and tAKE a phOTO…” Afi stepped into the Sand, hoping it would help him heat up.

 

The heat from the area seemed to be filling Afi with energy, his face shifted a little more, and his face slowly started to get a few more bubbles- yet he remained a dull red.

 

Sans squeezed Grillby’s hand to walk up the trail *ouch! Sans looked at his love. The monster was so bright- a bright blazing fire against the sun. Grillby’s flames were now tipped blue, not just his hair, but his arms and face! Fiametta had a yellow tint to her normally crimson visage. Magmus’ rocks clusters melted into him. It hurt to look at them shining in the light.

 

It did not look far, but it took the group a good ten minutes to climb the first dune… It was a bit of energy to climb, feet sinking slightly as they climbed up, but fortunately the fire elementals seemed to be gaining energy from the heat! Even the slow Lava Monsters were able to use the heat to increase their flow speed.

 

The top of the peak was awe-inspiring. There was not a tree in sight…dunes and distant red-blue mountains surrounded them.

 

“…Wow…Sans did you think…there would be so much open space…up here…I never believed it…”

 

“it’s funny…i always pictured the surface as kind of an open box-like a bunch of caves without a roof and a sun. like i never imagined this…”

 

Despite the warm sun-rays, Afi sat down at the top of the dune and to everyone’s worry lied down.

 

“…Dad…are you ok!” Magmus ran/blurbled over to Afi. To Fiametta’s horror Afi pulled Magmus next to him… and then proceeded to make a sand angel… like a snow angel but with Sand…

 

“…hOO..Hoo.HOO… this is gREat!...Haven’t seEN SANd in ages…”

 

Magmus decided to try a Sand angel, too.

 

“…COME on gRILLBERT!...”

 

“…Uhhh…”

 

“…yOU hAVE enough lAVA in you tO do A qUICK one!...”

 

Grillby laid in the sand and tried to do a sand angel quickly. The sand definitely felt nice and hot, but his flames dampened to lava. He very quickly made a sand angel next to Afi’s and got back up before his arms could go out. It was so hot they only looked lava-like for a few seconds, before re-igniting to a blue tipped yellow.

 

Fiametta drew little halo’s on for Afi and Magmus’s sand angels, and Sans drew little devil horns for Grillby’s. Sans took a few pictures of the family playing in the dunes.

 

The sand angels blew away with the wind, and the monsters headed back to the car. After practically sliding back down the dunes, the group found themselves back at the parking lot, which, despite Grillby’s fretting, had never left their sight.

 

****************************************************************

 

Their next stop was the farthest out; to Sans’s chagrin, they would have to take an hour detour. But Fiametta was most excited to take Afi to the volcano, Ubehebe crater.

 

Magmus told the story on the way,

 

“..sO mOM and I rEAD aboUT this… It is tragic tALE of a young…. baSALtic andesite MaAR… volcano… The fOOLISH yOUND VOLcano burbled thEIR mAGMA too close to the surface!...thEY thoUGHT nothing could stop thEM…but the lAND used to be an oCEAN here…so the lARGE amount of groundwater heated…cASUING a series of huge explosions… and noW the pROUD young volcano…is a crater” Magmus shed a magma tear.

 

The orange, yellow, and black crater was easy to walk around and into. Sans admired the bright blue sky in stark contrast to its orange dust. Afi and Fiametta took the trail to the center and the others followed.

 

“…Sad to think…it just exploded like that…” Grillby held Sans bony fingers.

 

“uh, but isn’t that what volcanoes do? Ya know…explode?”

 

“…Well…ideally… but they like to keep their shape… and not so young…”

 

The two found themselves sliding down the cinder trail together. Grillby tried to walk with dignity, but had a bit of trouble with the footing… his only casual shoes were flip flops that he was borrowing from Afi, so he stumbled and slid.   Sans realized he should probably get something for the elemental.

 

Still, sliding down the cindery loose trail meant they reached the bottom in no time. As they reached the volcano’s center, Afi put his head to the ground, and listened…

 

“…Ah! hOO hOO HO!... there is still..mAGMA… far..fAR… below… sEE MagMUS?”

 

Magmus put his head down, and with what looked like considerably less effort could make out the feint burbles of magma far below.

 

“…Oh…dAD…iT seems…sO much hAPPIER than EbOTT…iT is yOUNG…and joyful despite expLODing…so mANY people visit it… and it is looking for enough wATER…to explode again … iT hASN’t learned a thing!...”

 

“…HoO…hOO…yes…they are so hAPPy… It is sINGing it’s exploits…”

 

“can you hear the magma grillbz?” Sans hoped Grillby could.

 

“…Uh…probably not, but I can…try…”

 

Grillby reluctantly leaned into the ground…and put his head to the dusty surface. Today was apparently cover the elemental in dust day...but the feint humming was so pretty Grillby leaned in closer.

 

“…oh…wow…Yes…I can’t make out any words like Dad and Mag…but I hear a sweet humming…”

 

Fiametta tried, and shook her head.

 

“…I can’t quite…understand their dialect…”

 

Grillby tried to hum the magma song to Sans as they walked up the crater. With every step forward, they slipped back a few inches making the ascent a bit more of a hassle.

 

Afi looked like he was having a hard time, his lava legs kept sinking very deeply. He had not made much progress.

 

“…hey, have i showed you one of my skeleton tricks yet?”

 

“…hUH?”

 

“if you want i can give you a ride up the hill.”

 

“..hOO hOO hOO…you…tiny skeleton are going to get the great Afi up a hill?”

 

Sans put a hand on Afi’s ridiculously hot shoulder, and in an instant they were at the top of the crater. Afi’s laughter could be heard echoing into the crater. Fiametta looked happy but playfully frowned at her husband,

 

“…Ok boys!...Want a race up the hill… to meet those two tricksters…?

 

Fiametta and Grillby tried to race up the volcano. Magmus made an attempt at walking faster. Fiametta of course nimbly scampered to the top-she caught some wind, and used it to carry her flames up the hill! Grillby rather sadly missed the wind, so he ran, but he kept tripping and falling into the dust. Sans caught his eye, and Grillby shook his head. He was so full of energy, this was great!

 

Eventually Grillby met his mom at the top, she ruffled his fiery hair, and tossed him a charcoal cookie. Yum, mom’s homemade charcoal cookies. He could never burn them quite as well.

 

Sans politely tried one, and coughed a bit, while Afi downed a good three. Grillby felt bad for Sans, fortunately the fire elemental had thought ahead, he grabbed a few of his own cookies from a cooler in the trunk. Sans seemed to enjoy the chocolate chip a bit more. Eventually Magmus made it up the trail, and was rewarded with a whole stack of cookies.

 

Grillby was excited when Fiametta mentioned that the next stop was called Devil’s golf Course. He was excited to try the sport, after watching a game on the bar TV. He excitedly told everyone about how it was calm, and based on accuracy, and about different ways to put… all while Fiametta tried not to giggle.

 

They reached the area, and found a barren rocky wasteland of salt spires.

 

“…Sorry son.. but they say…only the devil…could play on such rough links!...” Fiametta read from the itinerary.

 

Sans tried to shortcut into the middle area, and tripped a bit on the uneven ground… Grillby got a picture, and the skeleton walked a bit more carefully back.

 

Next, the group reached Badwater Basin.

 

“…This is the lake you wanted to visit mother…?”

 

“…Haha…yes…Grillbert!...this used to be ocean…”

 

First the Golf course had been a lie, and now the lake was a desert… monster names were boring, true…but at least they were accurate.

 

“…This is the lowest point on the continent… We are on salt flats 282 feet below sea level… if the ocean were to come in…woosh…we’d be gone!...” Fiametta dramatically re-enacted the waves crashing in.

 

 

Next, they reached Artist’s Palette right in time for the afternoon sun. Grillby really liked this one-a rainbow of colors decorated canyon walls. The colors ranged from oxidated iron red, pink, and yellow, tuff-mica green, and a deep purple from manganese.

 

“…other mONSTERS…thINK..uS vOLCANIC…monsters…are just…rED…and yELLOW… but vOLCANoes…cAN make…a RAINBOW of ColORS…” Afi poked Grillby’s green hair and smiled.

 

Sans had to pull Grillby away from the walls after a few more pictures, as the rest of the family headed towards the car.

 

They reached their last stop in Death Valley…Golden Canyon, a small trail that sloped upwards gently, taking them through a sturdy land bridge, and two dried up once waterfalls. It was neat to think what heat had done to a once rushing stream of water. Grillby hugged Sans as the two crossed the bridge and headed back to the road.

 

It was late afternoon as they exited the park and drove into desert highways.

 

*************************************************************

 

It had been a few hours since they had stopped. Afi was napping in the car, and Magmus was singing along to a country song. The sun was setting, and he desert was getting cold. Everyone’s once bright flames started to sink as the stars rose.

 

As the sky darkened they found themselves in a human city.

 

Sans and Grillby’s eyes lit up… flashing lights for casinos, dance clubs, bars!

 

“Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada…” Fiametta’s charcoal eyes went wide.

 

“…Oh.. Asgore mentioned…this place was a bit extravagant… but wow…” Fiametta directed Grillby though the crowded main strip… crowds of humans crossed the road…restaurants, gambling houses, and hotels lined the road, each competing to be the biggest and brightest.

 

“…So Asgore… is buying our old property… and helping us find a new one…to sweeten the deal…he is paying for our hotels for this trip…and for some of the other Hotland residents who are selling…but wow… when he said a fancy human hotel I had…no idea…” Fiametta looked in wonder.

 

The group pulled their car up to one of the biggest and brightest buildings. Glowing yellow white lights lit the impressively tall building, it completely overshadowed the size of any Monster built structure they knew of bigger than Asgore’s own palace.

 

A valet immediately came up to them a man dressed in a rather uncomfortable looking maroon outfit.

 

“May I park your car?”

 

“…Uhh…”

 

“It is complimentary for guests.”

 

“…Oh…sure…let me just get out our lugga-”

 

“No need, sir, we can carry it.”

 

Fiametta had been told by Asgore to tip the humans that helped them, so Fiametta gave the man some gold….

The man’s eyes went wide. He signaled to two of his friends and they very amicably loaded the luggage onto a cart and followed the monsters in. Fiametta strode confidently to the check in…

 

“Ah yes, Mrs. Dhosi, we have you in the Luxury suite. I will have Mr. Jeffery act as your concierge.”

 

Grillby wondered how hard it could be to find a room… but then realized the labyrinthine nature of their location as he stood back for a second and was almost swept up in a crowd rushing to the theatre…Sans hopped over to grab him, and they met up in the elevator.

 

Grillby, Sans, Afi, Magmus and Fiametta were led up a ridiculously gilded and carpeted elevator by an Mr. Jeffrey, and their luggage went up a separate route.

 

Grillby enjoyed the sensation of the soft carpet under his feet. Wow-he could fall asleep on the carpeting. As the attendant brought them to their rooms, Fiametta tipped the bellhop and attendant, who looked elated.

 

“The 301 Luxury Suite for our Mr. and Mrs. “ Afi and Fiametta were led into a large room.

 

“And Room 302, the Bella Suite, for the gentlemen…” Grillby, Sans, and Magmus were led into an amazing room. Two huge Queen sized beds filled the room…each with their own velvet mini sofa next to the bed.

 

The concierge showed them how the group how curtains opened with a remote, revealing an amazing view of Vegas lit up at night. There was a marbled bathroom, with a giant bathtub with gold sinks. An enormous gold velvet sofa that spanned the entire living room area with an actual plant- not a fake plant- sat in the middle of a coffee table. There were also no less than three giant television sets.

 

“…Oh wow…” On top of it all, there was a large gift basket sitting on the counter.

 

The lavishly bowed gift basket was brimming with chocolates, fruit cut into flower shapes on tiny sticks, and a bottle of champagne…”

 

Mr. Jeffrey then handed them each a ticket to the theatre’s show for the night.

 

“King Asgore apologizes for not getting you a suite with a pool, but he figured it would not…uh work out…so he asked for our specialty basket… Our chef’s had fun learning of your special dessert and did our best to re-create it... no magma of course…my apologies. Since you are in our luxury suites we also have added tickets to our cabaret show at ten PM… and a pass to our casinos. Might I recommend this restaurant for dinner….”

 

The man pulled out a map of the hotel, and marked a star among the labyrinth of floors… the place had a theatre, more than ten restaurants, a rock wall.

 

“…wow…Thank you….” Grillby had no idea where to begin. Sans was practicing opening and closing the curtains with a remote. Magmus delicately tapped his foot onto the marble flooring.

 

“Can I get you Gentlemen anything else?”

 

The three nodded their heads no silently-this level of opulence was ridiculous.

 

Fiametta came in, and tipped the attendant who was smiling ear to ear on the way out.

 

“…So…how much does Asgore…want to buy Hotland?...” Grillby was amazed.

 

“…Apparently…this is much less expensive for him than keeping…the CORE running another year… and to humans… the amount of gold we have makes us pretty well off…still…Asgore is… trying to sell Mount Ebott…and use the profits to buy an even larger area… for monsters to live…I think he hopes that with this gesture…more than half of us will sell…before Winter…” Fiametta explained while her eyes darted around the amazing room.

 

The group decided to inspect the basket more carefully.

 

Inside the basket there were chocolates, fruit, tiny bottles of champagne, and also three cakes wrapped nicely in paper…upon opening it, it was revealed they were recreations of traditional fire cakes-with chocolate cake, little charcoal flowers, and red icing patterned to look like magma. Grillby admired the red and brown chocolate volcano that had been carefully placed atop each cake… wow…so fragile.

 

“…hOO hOO HOO…it is sweet that the hUMans tried to make LAVA CAkes…Asgore must have reqUESted the recipe… we are going to meET up with some of the other fire mONsters hERE before dINNER…want to meet at the resutAUNT at nINE?”

 

Everyone agreed to rest for a bit and meet for dinner.

 

*************************

 

Magmus had decided to try his luck at the casino for a bit. So Sans and Grillby had a little alone time, and used it to goof off in the room.

 

First, Sans decided to get the volcanic dust and sand off of him in the bathtub. It was so large he could do strokes in it. Sans laughed and called out to Grillby,

 

“so do you want me to smell like ‘mediterranean citrus fruits,” “ginger and nutmeg”, or ahem* “sensous jasmine.”

 

A wet Sans peaked his head out the door, to see that Grillby had curled up into bed and was testing the pillows out- the poor elemental was a bit tired from all the driving.

 

Sans hopped into the tub and finished his fancy as heck bubble bath, and then snuggled into Grillby once he was all-clean. The nuzzling woke up the elemental.

 

“…Sans… oops…I fell asleep…”

 

“it’s fine grillbz, take a load off! here, have a snack.”

 

Grillby looked at a clock,

 

“…Dinner’s in half an hour…”

 

“c’mon, i know you are _pining_ to try a bite.”

 

Sans toasted a piece of pineapple cut into a heart shape over Grillby’s head, and after all that hiking...man did it did smell good...

 

As Sans moved a second stick with a flower shaped pineapple piece in front of Grillby’s face, the elemental smiled and leaned his head into the pineapple and then happily let his flames eat up the stick stick.

 

“…Ok… that was a nice warm up snack…but do you want a bit of cake before dinner…?”

 

 

“way ahead of you grillbabe.”

 

Sans cut one small piece of the fancy cake… making sure that Grillby’s piece had the fancy chocolate volcano on it. Sans then proceeded to make Grillby lean his head into a pillow so he could feed him a piece of cake…

 

“…Sans…”

 

“relax my fiery angel…” Sans flourished the fork in an elaborate gesture that sent a piece of cake zooming into Grillby’s face. Grillby burned it instantly.

 

Sans and Grillby both snorted a bit.

 

“..Ok Sansy… but I get to feed you some cake, too…”

 

Grillby’s face lit up in happiness as Sans ignored him and fed him a spoonful of chocolate and raspberry filled sponge cake with a molten chocolate center and a top layer of ganache. The charcoal flower decoration gave it a nice crunch, wow Grillby's cakes were put to shame.

 

“…Wow… I mean…I love a magma in the center…but considering… the limitations humans have, I think the molten chocolate works great!... Maybe someday… I could make something like this…”

 

“huh?”

 

“…well… if I can get better… I would love to focus the bar as a dinner restaurant… and to do that I would need to get better at some high end stuff… now that we are on the surface…there is less competition from established monsters… … not now… I am still trying to save up…but someday…I hope to get better at baking…”

 

“what, you are already amazing!”

 

“…at grilling things…mixing drinks… and simple breakfasts…you’ve seen my cakes… they are alright… but not this quality…"

Grillby did his best to pick up the tiny chocolate decoration, and the part he touched began to melt immediately. He got up and had Sans rest his head on the pillow and tried to feed the little volcano to Sans instead, who was more than happy to seductively lick melted chocolate off of Grillby’s fingers.

 

The lick turned into a kiss, and the two were happily all over each other as Magmus walked in.

 

The door beeped and swung open and the two tried to detach themselves as Magmus opened the door.

 

“…Oh…hey you tWO…don’t worry..I dO…NOT…CAre if you sleep together…I want that amAZING bed to mySELF…”

 

Magmus jumped into the unoccupied bed and let his lava spread out. He still had a golden glow from earlier in the day.

 

“…ANywAY… while you two wERE goofing around…I wON…seventeen dollARS…but I lost tEN… so… bIG WIN of seven dollars...lITTLE bRO…you aRE lUCKY… want to try some gAMES…?”

 

“…maybe after dinner… but I would rather just hit the bar…”

 

“…yOUR on vACATIon.. stay away fROM the bAR!”

 

******************************

 

“…Why aRE there fOURteen pages…and I dO NOt recognize… all of THEse…DAd...you know …hUMAn foods…whAT are you getting…?” Magmus stared intently at the menu.

 

Sans was having serious trouble deciding, too.

 

“grillbabe, what are you getting?”

 

“…Probably a burger…”

 

“…WE did not… just collect six human souls… escape the Underground…and travel nine hours to get here… to some sort of human palace…for you to only eat a burger…” Fiametta looked exasperated.

 

“…but it is… a ‘Grand Delux Burger’…” Grillby decided to at least look at some other things.

 

 

The waiter came by to take their order.

 

Afi decided on a delicious looking shrimp and chicken curry, with plum wine, sun dried tomatoes, and apricots, that did sound good!

 

Fiametta Settled on a Cajun Shrimp and Chicken Jambalaya-guaranteed to be extra hot!

 

Magmus went all out, with a wood grilled Rib-eye Steak…

 

Sans settled on the Garlic Shrimp Pasta…he had no clue how a ‘brocolinni’ or ‘spaghettini’ was different than Spaghetti and broccoli, but he figured Papyrus would want to know.

 

Grillby was very proud of himself- he branched out of getting a burger and fries to trying a spicy Carnitas Sandwich…and fries. He’d never heard of it before, but it sounded great.

 

The dinner was excellent, everyone enjoyed trying something new, and aside from a small hang-up where Sans had to ask the waiter to stop coming by with the very full and icy pitcher of water, it was a good time. Considering they had a big gift basket from Asgore, they just had a quick coffee before the free show.

 

***********************************************************************************

The cabaret show was…pretty damn good. The theme was “Star Crossed Love” and was a mix of songs and dance number from three famous human shows, Romeo and Juliet, Moulin Rouge, and The Great Gatsby. It was incredibly overly dramatic, romantic, and fun.   Sans wondered if the full musicals had happier endings…

 

Afi was feeling a bit down after the show. He had enjoyed it, but his lava was slowing down again. Grillby asked if he wanted to sit and talk a bit.

 

“..Hoo hOO..no…no…we are hERE to hAVE fun… you bOYs go have fun… I just need some sleep AFTER the bIG hIKE…”

 

Thus, Grillby and Sans a bit hesitantly headed down with Magmus with the intention of pulling one or to slot machines and then hitting the bar. Grillby looked at the bar as they entered the casino-his flame almost hit the cathedral style ceiling!

 

It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his life. The literal walls of drinks were arranged by type and color! It was shining! But his flame sank as he looked at the cocktails.

 

“Sex on the Beach” “The flaming hoo-hah” “”The smoke and Mirrors” they looked dumb as heck. A customer ordered an old fashioned and Grillby’s soul twinged in agony...the poor bartender…the poor bartender who… was begrudgingly handing them the super fiddly drink.  Grillby could not watch… the customer tipped high... two more customers came in and ordered virgin frozen drinks...

 

He ordered a gin and tonic, it was perfect.

 

“…Sans…Magmus… we can’t stay here… I will tip away all my money…” Grillby pulled Sans and Magmus into the Casino as they finished their first drinks.

 

“too perfect?”

 

“…Sans…what If I told you…I was jealous of the stupid lavish bar… with the stupidly named overpriced cocktails…and their stupid fancy striped mahogany barstools…and their stupid customers that don’t know how to order real drinks…?”

 

“what if i told you we get free drinks instead if we play a game of poker?”

 

“…They aren’t… really free if you are betting money... and tipping…Sans…”

 

“…bUT … griLLBERT… you ARE So…gOOD at pOKER…”

 

“…Not professionally…”

 

“…What abOUt sOMEthing smaller…?” Magmus gurgled.

 

Grillby looked at the collection of old retired humans and drunk honeymooners joining the $3/$6 limit game.

 

“...I can probably wipe the floor… good chance… over there…”

 

Magmus grabbed Grillby and Sans by either arm-they were going to have a good time!

 

Sans did not really want to gamble. He bought the minimum and decided he would be happy if he won a round. Magmus followed suit. Grillby realized that if there were any good players, they also would have bought roughly $100. Grillby focused on a human wearing sunglasses and swearing. Oh ho ho- maybe competition?

 

Sans lost the game of poker splendidly. At first he was too timid, and kept limping, even when he had a good hand. The human with the sunglasses tried to isolate him, then after the second complimentary cocktail he was paying more attention to singing Lady Gaga’s Poker Face at a very handsome Grillby than to figuring out if he should fold, call or raise. He got so loose with his bets that he was out after another three rounds.

 

Magmus had terrible luck, and while he had some winning hands, he only managed to break even.

 

Magmus and Sans watched as the humans tried to read Grillbys face. Grillby for his part really did have an amazing poker face and he was a shark. Seeing as he had to put effort into making a smile, and that he had played enough rounds with Greater Dog (that card counting jerk) to know how to play.

 

Grillby was getting good enough cards, but knew when to play cautiously. The sunglasses wearing human was playing a decent, but predictable tight game and Grillby was close to the button so when they started limping Grillby could raise…

 

A human with a fancy hat offered Grillby a drink, which to be honest did not affect the elemental. It would take more than a few cocktails to get Grillby plastered. The elemental’s flames turned a bright yellow at the tips and flickered more quickly than normal. He was trying to disguise his flame patterns.

 

“It’s not fair he doesn’t have a tell!” A woman in an “I <3 LV” shirt ended her game.

 

“…I have a tell…” Grillby replied cooly.

 

And in fact the remaining human in sunglasses had figured out how to read Grillby… as Grillby studied the mouth corners and eyebrows, the man studied Grillby’s flame, the yellow wore off and the human won a few rounds when Grillby’s flame flickered more quickly.

 

 

It looked like it was coming down to one more hand! Grillby actually formed a smile, the human and Grillby both put their chips in ... Grillby raised.

 

Sans had sobered up a bit to root for his elemental-come on Grillbz…!

 

The cards on the table were a Jack of spades, a Queen of diamonds, a ten of clubs, and a pair of black sixes.

 

The human had two queens…those plus the six and queen on the table gave him a Queens Full.

 

Ooph! But Grillby had one better, a pair of sixes himself-giving him four sixes!

 

Grillby had it! Magmus and Sans hugged the elemental! The human smiled, and congratulated Grillby by offering him a cigarette, Grillby thankfully took one, and tossed it in his mouth. The human face-palmed, and showed him how it worked. Duh… Doggo smoked something like these. Grillby then attempted to take a draw without just burning the whole thing.

 

“…huh…this is better… what it in it…?” The human, however, had moved on to another table.

 

“Would you like to try to increase your winnings sir?”

 

“..Haha…no… thanks…” The casino staff looked a bit disappointed, but Grillby was happy with his win.

 

Grillby leaned on Sans and Magmus, who dutifully helped lure him away from the tables to cash in his winnings.

 

“…Wow… that was an amazingly good game… won $40!”

 

“wait, grillbabe. i thought you were a millionaire after all that?”

 

“…Not quite…” Grillby experimented with the cigarette and let out a puff of smoke.

 

Magmus tried to pull the cigarette out of Grillby’s mouth.

 

“…bRO…yoU…really don’t want to get addICted to those…”

 

“…Mag…How..do you…possibly… get addicted to paper with little… dried plants inside…?”

 

 

“oh, doesn’t it have nicotine? that goes into the bloodstreams and gets you addicted…” Sans had gone to a few biology seminars.

 

“…I do not see… how that would… affect me because… I do not have blood… I can barely taste anything in these besides the tar… which is great by the way…”

 

“…aCTUALLY.. I used to bE addicted to the TAR…” Magmus glared at the cigarette.

 

“…Wait really?…” Grillby pulled the cigarette out and looked at it suspiciously.

 

Magmus pointed to a black patch of tar in his arm… it was hard to get rid of tar. Magmus looked seriously at Grillby.

 

“oKAY… suppose you do not get addicted…but thEN whAT is the pOINT…you mAKE better smOKE…?...It just looks…dUMb…”

 

Grillby thought for a second.

 

“…OK…fair points…and besides…these things…are expensive…”

 

Grillby snubbed out the cigarette. Maybe he’d save tar for special occasions only, one cigarette was enough for tonight.

 

Magmus wanted to try his luck one more time, while Grillby used some of his winnings to treat Sans and himself to the stupidest sounding cocktail they could find before heading to bed and snuggling up.

 

“…So…I can teach you how to play a bit…better if you want…Sansy…”

 

“hmm, maybe, babe.”

 

The two cuddled up and went to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Where to next? Finally the Grand Canyon! 
> 
> What special trip did Sans reserve?
> 
> Will Afi get his heat back?
> 
> How much more Punk music can Fiametta listen too?
> 
> What fancy soap did the skeleton steal from the hotel?
> 
> Find out next time...


	29. Into the Canyon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans and Grillby continue their summer vacation with Grillby's family. Sans learns a bit about Chara, and Grillby bonds with nature.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay...I have been busy prepping for a genetics conference all week... and will be there for a few days. Will try to post another chapter soon though! Thank you for all the amazing support!

It was a rough night for Sans…

 

Sans was in the throne room staring at a small human child in a green and yellow shirt. He had known they weren’t human, but why hadn’t he stopped them sooner?

 

Chara was laughing at him. Was he bleeding… no it was ketchup… but his ribs were smashed, and he could feel the dust form on his insides… he was still going to die… without saying goodbye to his friends…his brother…

 

…he wanted to go to Snowdin one last time… maybe someone could help him…

 

…wait… this seemed familiar… had this happened before… and he waited too long, not enough magic left to shortcut….

 

Instead of going to Grillby’s he took a look at the demon’s face…it walked up to the throne room exit… and the world went blank….and Sans restarted the fight, fuzzily recalling it had happened moments before…he lost again… and this time just watched as the demon waited at the door and prepared to reset.

 

“why are you killing me if you don’t even want to see the king?”

 

The world reset… for who knows what number of times…Papyrus was gone again… Undyne… Alphys was nowhere to be found…the demon came again…and killed him… and stopped at the door…they turned around…their eyes were red… flashing… he demo’s face warped into Frisk’s then back into the demon’s…the cycle continued until their demon eyes flashed red.

 

Sans was jolted awake, curled up in the ridiculous bed in a hotel on the surface far away from that throne room.

 

Sans peeked out from under the covers. Magmus was snoring loudly. He hoped he had not... crap Grillby was awake and standing over him, blazing brightly.

 

“…Sans!… I am so happy you are awake…I tried to wake you up…but…was it bad?”

 

“yeah. it was a dream about the demon again.”

 

Grillby gave Sans a hug.

 

“…Do you want to talk about it… or something else?...”

 

“it helps to talk.” Sans sighed out his new mantra and Grillby pulled the skeleton onto his fiery chest. Grillby was like a warm pillow… a very warm pillow.

 

Magmus rolled over and paused their snoring.

 

“did i ever tell you about the demon that could mess with timelines?”

 

“…Um… just that they…killed a lot of people…”

 

“they were pure evil…i mean, flowey was a piece of work, but he would only randomly kill out of boredom, but usually every monster…i even talked him out of it at least once…that i can remember… but the demon…always wanted to kill every single monster”

 

Sans turned around and faced Grillby.

 

“the only ones who would make it were monsters who evacuated… me and paps and the guards could usually evacuate the town in time… well most of the town…but they always made it a point to kill all the guards and sentries…including paps…even when i tried to keep him away. i i just don’t understand why they never went for asgore, the demon i mean. they always seemed like they wanted to…but they never could.”

 

“…Why would a demon want to kill asgore…”

 

“i don’t mean a demon monster, I mean an angry spirit.”

 

“…what did they look..like…”

 

“like a human kid. similar to frisk, but pale and with brown hair.”

 

“…Could it be… a human Asgore killed in the war…?...”

 

“i suppose that’s most likely, but seems like a long time to decide to wait to attack asgore.”

 

“…maybe…it takes a while…”

 

Magmus stopped pretending to snore and rolled over.

 

“…WhAT was their nAME…”

 

“chara.”

 

“…yOU TWO are supER yOUNG…but yOU should hAVE learned…the whOLE reason we CollectED humAN soULS…”

 

“…um…didn’t we… always…” Grillby mumbled.

 

“i know the story. the human kid that lived with asgore got sick and asked that their soul to be brought to the surface. and then the prince was killed by humans. and asgore declared that he would collect human souls” Sans rubbed his eye sockets blearily.

 

“impORTANTly…the HUMan’s name was chARA…I dO NOT knOW that…tHAT is a cOMMON huMAN nAME…”

 

Sans and Grillby looked at Magmus.

 

“…So…before we broke the barrier…the angry spirit of Chara… was trying to see the King… but could never do it…but why would they be mad….if the king was their father…the king is so nice…”

 

“well, maybe they were mad that the king started killing human kids.” Sans sighed.

 

 

“…I always…forget that…was what was happening…why did they have to be kids…” Grillby looked a bit sad, most humans seemed pretty nice, and children especially did not seem to deserve it.

 

“…mOM and dAD…said yOU used to be a judge…I knEW a jUDge before yOU…and whILE asGORE is kIND… if yOU rULE as LONG as he has…yOU will have enEMIES…”

 

“…enemies…”

 

“well. i did have to toss a few monsters out of the throne room before. most just wanted to fight the guy, but i mean i never had to fight any monster more than a turn or two”

 

“…nICE…wELL…with you as jUDGE I bet…sOME of the assassination ATTEMPts…wENT dOWN…”

 

Now it was Sans’ turn to be surprised.

 

“woah, never saw anyone with actual murderous intent. were there a lot before?”

 

“wELL... the oWL and mAGma mONSters I knEW…whO were jUDges together last century… had to wORK tOGETHER…to keep oUT mONSTERS…pOOR lAVA hEAD…wAS dusted…wHEN sEVERAL skELETONs gANGed up on hER…”

 

“what!”

 

Magmus looked sad.

 

“…I tOLD hER to rETIRE…they were gETTING oLD. bEAKs wAS so mAD… she dusted hALF of thEM…”

 

“i am so sorry that skeletons would do that…”

 

“…nO nEED to ApOLAgize…every mONSTER-type hAS a fEW bad Apples…dID grILLBY ever tELL yOU about cousin fURNCICIA…probably nOT? Besides it is nOT surprising… skelETONS are known for being-“

 

Magmus cut off.

 

“…anyway…. ASGOre…probABLY figured that hAVING YOU… mIGHT deter sOME of their attACKS…”

 

“skeletons are what?”

 

“…I apoloGIZE SANS…generALIZATIONS are fOOLSIH. aFTER All evERONE always sAYS fire mONSTERS are wild and hoT tempered… but look at GrILLBY…”

 

Grillby would have rolled his eyes if he could.

 

“i didn’t grow up with skeletons…what do monsters think of us?” Sans was not going to let it drop.

 

 

“uMM” Magmus looked at Grillby and Sans,

 

“Umm… the OLd adage... thAT I do NOT…bELIEVE… is that skElETONs are um… stuck in the OLD wAYs… so thEY are not scared of dEATH… and so aRE brutISHLY quick to fight… …but you are so small…no one would think that about yOU.”

 

“um. you promise you don’t think that?”

 

“nO..nO…AbsoluTEly not… I admit I wAS surprised little GrILLBERT was dating a skeleton…bUT dAD likes yOU…and I wAS worried griLLBERT was dATING yOU jUST because you arE some tOUGH guY…bUT I THINK yOU… are nICE …”

 

Magmus slid off the bed and gave Sans an awkward thumbs up.

 

“OH…lOOK at the tIME… the sUN is uP..I am gOING to wATCH the sUNRISE…”

 

MagMUS shuffled quickly to the door, and left for a bit. It was still a half hour before sunrise…

 

“grillbz....what did you think about skeletons before you met me?”

 

“…I just heard you were traditional…whatever that means…although… when you moved in some of the locals were a bit gossipy…”

 

“gossipy?”

 

“they thought you two were a bit…scary… but I have never thought anything like what Magmus said…that is ridiculous…”

 

Sans looked upset.

 

“…Sans…I am sorry…it is really unfair…and I think…it is the dumbest sterotype…I have ever heard…Skeletons are way too cute to be scary…” Grillby hugged Sans.

 

“yeah. those sorts of things are dumb. and you definitely aren’t hot headed. except in the literal sense”

 

“…look… its better than the other stereotypes about fire elementals, well elementals in general…” Grillby blushed.

 

“i’d take being good in bed over being violent…”

 

“…we just have to start new rumors about skeletons…”

 

“uh? we smell like ketchup.”

 

“…true… but how about that they are cuddly…?”

 

Grillby hugged Sans.

 

“heh.”

 

“…anyway…forget about the nightmare…probably from the liquor before bed…”

 

“i um. i definitely have a slight hangover” Sans blushed a bit.

 

“…one of the best things about dating a bartender… is that I know a good cure for that…”

 

Grillby treated Sans to a bacon and egg sandwich from one of the ridiculous restaurants and the two forgot about the night before.

 

*************************************

 

Sans was nervous about the next stop on the drive.

 

“so, you guys area really excited to tour the hoover dam? i mean what if the dam breaks while we visit?”

 

“…the dam…is… not even a hundred years old…I have been told it is very safe…”

 

Fiametta folded her highlighted and earmarked schedule to the dam.

 

“…besides it is the quickest route to the next location…” Fiametta directed Grillby on the exit to take.

 

After a bit of driving they could see the Hoover dam in the distance. As they reached the inspection pull over spot, a Bureau of Reclamation and Safety Police officer- woman stopped their car with blonde hair in a stern bun and an even more stern expression stopped the vehicle.

 

“Good afternoon. I know you are excited to cross the dam, but after the terrorist attacks we need to inspect vehicles. We have randomly selected your vehicle for a safety inspection…” The officer’s droll tone broke, and her eye’s opened wide as she noticed the driver was a flaming man.

 

“…Ok…” Grillby was worried. He hadn’t realized there were security checkpoints. Would they let them pass?

 

“…how-ho- how can we help…?” Grillby was worried. The woman crossed her arms and continued.

 

“Uh… we have to prevent any weapons from coming into the dam. Obviously guns or explosives are not allowed over it! So if you have anything dangerous we would have to turn you around. Would you like to declare any weapons, knives, firearms?

 

“…firearms…um… I suppose …?” Grillby stared at his arms. The officer actually cracked a smile.

 

“meaning guns or rifles Sir”

 

“…no guns…” Grillby’s flames turned blue. Sans and Magmus snickered a bit.

 

“OK, thank you Sir. We are just going to search your vehicle.”

 

Everyone scrambled out of the car as the security quickly checked compartments and asked the monsters to open their bags for them. It was a bit off putting. The security were polite enough, but it was a bit intrusive compared to what they were used to Underground, even Fiametta seemed a bit off-put and nervous.

 

The officer suddenly paused after Grillby opened Sans bag for him.

 

“WHAT is THIS…?"

The officers face looked a bit panicked as she pulled out a bone from Sans’ bag in panic… Oh crap…Papyrus had put a bone attack in Sans’ bag and Sans had missed it… and the officer had said no weapons. But would she think it was one?

 

“oh i can’t believe my brother put that in there, sorry.”

 

The officer turned to look at Sans and sighed not having particularly noticed him beforehand.

 

“So you are saying this bone is yours?”

 

“well, actually it’s my brother’s. um it’s a skeleton thing” Sans decided not to point out it was a bone attack, and instead popped his hand off to show the security officer.

 

“he’s just such a worrier he threw one into my luggage. you can have it if it’s a problem.”

 

“Um…wouldn’t he need it to um…ok, no that is ok, sir.” the security officer gingerly dropped the bone back into the suitcase, glared at the mixture of clothes and ketchup, and just sighed. She was not paid enough for this.

 

 

“Ok, all clear. Enjoy your visit to the dam.”

 

*************************************************************************************

 

Everyone pile back into the car, and Grillby eventually pulled up to a parking lot. Everyone took turns taking a picture with dam. The area was misty but not wet. Sans actually enjoyed the cool air after being in the car with Grillby’s family for so long. A very excited tour guide walked by.

 

“Wow. You guys aren’t from around here are you!”

 

“…Well…we are from the state over…”

 

“Are you going on a tour?”

 

“…Seeing it this close is enough for… the family…” Fiametta looked at Afi, whose lava had stopped shifting again. He had insisted on seeing the dam, but Fiametta wasn’t going to get up close and personal.

 

“Well, normally I charge for this but, seeing as I’ve never met any monsters before, do you have any questions about the dam?”

 

“…why was the dam built?...”

 

“Well, during the Great Depression of the 1930s -

 

“ The man looked at the monsters who had no idea what the Great Depression was.

 

“There was a point of time in recent history where unemployment was at an all time high, and large dust storms ravaged the Midwest.”

 

Grillby and Fiametta shuddered at the idea of a dust storm...rain was bad enough.

 

“During that time, the government decided to build a hydroelectric plant here to harness the water, creating Lake Mead, and creating a large number of jobs during the economic depression.”

 

“…Oh… so your King… tried to help by creating jobs…”

 

“Well, actually, we had a president-Teddy Roosevelt. He took over after the last president, Hoover, was so unpopular. They blamed Hoover for the depression. The dam is named after President Hoover now, but this is controversial since the workers who built the dam hated him, thus it was originally called Boulder Dam after the nearby city.”

 

The monsters looked interested, so the guide smiled a bit more.

 

“The companies who built the dam were no saints for hiring people- they underpaid their workers and fired them when they went on strike. They had discriminatory hiring practices… for example they refused to hire any Chinese Americans, so I wouldn’t have been hired.”

 

All the monsters but Afi were a bit confused…

 

“…dIFFERENT hUMAN clANS… fIGHT sOMETIMES…” Afi burbled a lot as he spoke.

 

“Well…I suppose that is one way to put it.” The guide decided now was not the time to explain the history of racism in the United States.

 

“And on top of that 112 men died constructing the dam! And another 40 died of pneumonia that was actually likely poisoning. It was a great sacrifice, but this is the result.”

 

“poisoning?”

 

“They used gasoline engines in tiny tunnels… that combined with temperatures reaching 140oF led to carbon monoxide poisoning and heat stroke. The companies were pretty cheap and lied about some of the deaths to avoid claims from family members”

 

Grillby could not imagine that many monsters sacrificing their lives for some building even if it did provide power to so many.

 

“The dam has a total capacity of 35,200 kilometers cubed, although actively it has less, a max length of 112 miles, a depth of 590 feet, and provides energy to areas of Arizona, Nevada, and California.”

 

Grillby tried not to think about how that would be enough to flood the whole Underground.

 

“Anyway, I hope you enjoy your trip.”

 

The guide waved them goodbye and after a few more pictures Grillby pulled back into the highway. He was starting to get a little bored of driving.

 

“…I can’t imagine…having that many humans die…building something…and not paying them properly…”

 

“wELL…none of yOU rEMEMBER the bUILDing of the cORE do yOU?”

 

Everyone nodded their heads no…

 

“hOO hOO HOO… asGORE hAD to bUILD the cORE to pOWER the UNDERground…bUT…iT wAS a hUGE project…my fIRM wAS involved in pARTS of the construction…hE paid everYONE wELL… bUT…wELL thERE aRE only so mANY fIRE mONSTERS at the TIME…iF asGORE hAD only hired us…it wOULD hAVE tAKEN fifty yEARS…they hAD to HIRE oTHER mONSTERS, tOO… and pLENTY of monSTERS fELL into the lAVA…I cAUGHT a fEW…bUT …” Afi looked upset.

 

“well…I am too sLOW…” Afi frowned deeply and started to turn dull.

 

"yOU hAVE to understand…wE wERE desperate…fOR power… monsTERS wERE starving…sO we built it… pERHAPS MORE quickly than… wE should hAVe …” Afi remembered the monsters he had seen fall.

 

“…afterwards….Asgore…cOMMEMORATED…the project to the woRKERS… and Queen TorIEL… personally… saw to every family who HAD …lOST a monster…monSTERS were hAPPY to hAAVE pOWER… bUT well… I cOULD not even find their ASH…”

 

No one knew what to say…

 

***************************************************************

After a few more hours of driving in the overheated car,  Grillby pulled into their stop- the Grand Canyon.

 

They all oohed and ahead at the beautiful hues on the Canyon Walls: reds, yellows, and orange clays carved out by the Colorado River.

 

It was a magnificent sight, even Afi, who had been to the surface before seemed incredibly awestruck to watch the canyon with the setting sun. As the sun sank low, Afi hugged Fiametta his red glow lighting up slightly.

 

After a bit Fiametta broke away.

 

“So…Sans…we booked the hotel for tonight… but you booked the one for tomorrow... and you say we need to check in a day ahead…for some reason…where is the place we are staying…?” Fiametta looked sad to leave the canyon.

 

“uh.. right. so uh, its down there.” Sans pointed to the canyon.

 

Fiametta, Afi, Grillby, and Magmus looked at the enormous drop.

 

“…sO…we are CAMPING…?”

 

“no there is a ranch house style lace to stay at the bottom. don’t worry.”

 

“…Sans… um…are we…hiking down there…I do not think Afi should…can you shortcut us all there…?” Fiametta looked distressed.

 

“uh, well i could. and then we might be stuck there for a night while i regain magic... but, I’ve got a second part to the surprise!”

 

Everyone got back into the car, and Sans directed them to the area, on the South Rim of the Canyon. They reached their destination.

 

A human in a cowboy hat greeted them.

 

“Howdy and welcome to the Phantom Ranch Mule riding experience, my name is Jim, and you must be Dr. Skeleton here to check in for tomorrow?”

 

Jim had been expecting a skeleton and several fire people… it wasn’t hard to figure this was their group.

 

“yup, that’s us.”

 

“Wonderful! Welcome to the best mule-riding experience on the South Rim! We would love to get you guys ready tonight, then you can sleep in a little longer tomorrow morning. Due to the excessive heat we will be departing a little earlier so we will leave at 7:00AM sharp…so be up and adam by 6:45! Let me grab the safety forms!”

 

The man left the fire elementals with Sans.

 

“…Hoo Hoo! Sans whAT a gREAT idea! I lOVE ridING…” Afi and Fiametta looked excited about the trip now.

 

Grillby looked less excited.

 

“…So…Sans… what are mules…?” Grillby was picturing a pretty large beast.

 

“well, they are like horses.”

 

Grillby still looked a bit uncertain.

 

“rEMEMBER…whEN we roDE..the nIGHTMARES…at cOUSIN sPARKUS’s weDDING…? iT.. will be …sIMILAR…but they are…nOT on FIRE…”

 

Grillby remembered riding the Nightmares as a monsterling…large flaming beasts that had tried to kick him off. Magmus had had to rescue him off of it. And they were apparently riding these down a cliffside. Everyone else seemed perfectly ok with this prospect.

 

Grillby looked at Sans.

 

“grillbz…if you fall, of _horse_ i’ll catch you.” Sans smiled at Grillby, who was still nervous.

 

The man came out with some safety forms.

 

“So can you all attest that you are in good physical health for a five hour trip?”

 

Afi nodded fervently, as did the rest,

 

“So I do need to measure you and make sure you are all 4’7” and that no one is over 200 pounds… or proportioned in a way that would make this uncomfortable for our animals...” Jim the cowboy looked at Magmus and Afi.

 

To Jim’s and Sans’ amazement Afi and Magmus shifted their lava slightly, bringing their magma in to more compact human like forms. Sans thought this was what Grillby looked like when he went lava-ey. Sans noticed the Grillby actually really took after Afi. They had the same head shape and were the same height.

 

Jim weighed them and they were under 200 pounds.

 

Magmus and Grillby were less happy about this. As his dad compacted himself, Grillby noticed that he had lost a lot of weight. Afi still had a bit of a belly, but was otherwise a bit shrunken. Grillby met Fiametta’s eyes, but Fiametta just brushed her hand as if to shoe Grillby off of the topic.

 

The human frowned when he got to Sans and measured him three times…the third time Grillby noticed that Sans feet were glowing slightly and that the human gently put a hand on his head, moving him down despite the gravity spell, Sans was foiled.

 

“Alright Blue feet…as someone who measures kids for a living I’ve seen a lot of magic tricks, never hovering before! But despite that, it looks like you just made it! Exactly four foot seven.”

 

Sans smiled sheepishly, dang that was close.

 

“Ok, let’s go over these rules! Are most of you are beginners?”

 

“…I hAVE ridden bEFORE…but it WAS a fEW cENTURIES aGO…Hoo hOOO HOO.”

 

Between the form shift, the hovering, and the near eternal life, Jim was starting to wonder what would amaze him next.

 

“Well, we can put you with amateur level if you would like?”

 

“…sOUND gOOD!...” Afi’s face glowed slightly.

 

“So… some basic safety. These animals are all very well trained, and are well accustomed to travelling up and down the canyon. They are sure footed, and will walk along the edge of the canyon. So if you are afraid of heights, or scared of large animals we insist that for your own safety and for others you back out. We ask that you help keep a calm environment by not being loud, spooking them, or urging them to move more quickly. If you are respectful of them they will treat you well”

 

Jim straightened up and continued.

 

“So…normally I would go on a spiel about sun protection and hydration, but I suppose we don’t need that.”

 

The monsters nodded.

 

“Ok, for Blue feet… I suggest bringing a swimsuit if you want to go swimming in Bright Angel Creek at the bottom of the Canyon and a flashlight to help you see at night. For the rest of you…um…be sure to wear long pants and close-toed shoes so the stirrups don’t pinch your skin-er-fire… and no more than one camera or binoculars per person. We provide one small bag for everyone, with a complimentary rain poncho and er… a canteen.”

 

Jim was feeling like most of these rules were not going to work, at least the other group of monsters he had met had been easier.

 

“So here’s the plan! We’re going to give you your bags tonight so you can get them ready ahead of time, and we will get you acquainted with your mules and teach you how to get on and off of them. Our wranglers will help you get the correct riding posture and have you do a few practice circles. Tomorrow we will head out bright and early, and stop for a sack lunch at a grove, and then proceed along the rock face of the inner Gorge. If you are scared of heights, this will not be pleasant. Next you will cross the Colorado River on a Suspension bridge and go along Bright Angel Canyon to Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the Canyon. We have you set up in Guest room C.”

 

The man paused and took a breath,

 

“Feel free to enjoy the beautiful sights at the bottom of the canyon and the steak cookout! Any questions?”

 

Magmus smiled at idea of a steak cookout.

 

“Now let’s meet your mules!”

 

The family proceeded into the pen, which had a large herd of mules munching on grain feed, and drinking from huge buckets of water. A few mules looked a little alarmed at the flaming humanoids walking into their pen, but the Jim led them to a mix of particularly un-phased mules.

 

“alright, our Wrangler Jill will pair you up.” Jim left them in her hands.

 

Jill, a mousy haired woman with a cowboy hat and a bandana took a look at the group.

 

“So, Afi, I’m going to pair you up with Smokey. He has a bad stomping habit, but otherwise is very good”

 

Jill moved Afi to a mule that was slightly larger than your average horse.

 

Afi nodded. Smokey was a brown fuzzy mule with a white donkey’s muzzle who why was busy eating as much grain as possible and stamping his hoof into the ground, flattening the muddy patch of grass into a pulp.

 

 

Another human gingerly asked if Afi needed help, but Afi shook his head and mounted the mule by putting a hand on the saddle, and a foot into the stirrup, slightly pulling the saddle for a second but otherwise good. Afi gently patted the mule who hadn’t even looked up from their feed to see that a giant lava person was riding him.

 

Ok, Jill was happy the first fire person had a mule that would like them…

 

“Ok Magmus, we are going to pair you up with Betsy.”

 

Betsy was a calm old mule with a fuzzy white cream colored body…. She looked like a mule that would probably be given to a little kid, it even had a pink saddle pad. But Magmus was a good sport, and after letting Betsy smell his hand, was helped by a human onto the mule. Magmus was particularly careful to keep his lava very tight, doing his best not to spook the animal.

 

“Fiametta, here is Molly. She and Smokey like each other so expect her to stick to him like glue!” Molly was a small paint, with particularly long ears, with a big brown spot over her left eye.

 

“Sans, you’re on Sleepy. He likes to stay near Diablo. And he’s actually a hinny- meaning his mother was a female donkey, so he should be a little slow, but even more sure footed!”

 

Sleepy was the smallest mule. A little grey and rather rotund fellow, who looked extremely bored at the idea of going down the canyon again. Sans, who had watched a few internet videos and who had been practicing in an effort to impress Grillby, managed to get up the mule without help.

 

“And Grillby, we think you can handle Diablo! He’s very calm, despite the name!”

 

Grillby nervously tried to let Diablo smell his hand… Diablo was one of the larger mules…a chestnut with blonde hair. His ear switched back at the sight of Grillby’s hand. The guide watched carefully, all their mules were calm, and these were some of the best…she’d have to shuffle everyone around if Diablo wouldn’t let Grillby on. She had an idea…

 

“Ooh he’s just a bit shy, do you want to feed him?”

 

“…Um…”

 

Jill handed Grillby a few horse treats.

 

“Hold it like this, with your palm flat, and your fingers together. If you stick a finger up they could nibble it slightly.”

 

Grillby nervously held what looked like a crumbly heart shaped granola bar in the palm of his hand. His flames licked up a few crumbs, the treat tasted like oats and sugar. Grillby kept his flames as low as possible. Jill helped hold Grillby’s hand out to show that the fire was ok.  

After a half minute of Diablo curiously moving his nuzzle closer, curiosity overtook him, his ears came forward and he delicately took the treat from Grillby’s hand. Grillby was usually awful with animals, this was great. Diablo then rubbed his nose into Grillby and sneezed on him.

 

“That means he likes you!”

 

Grillby pet Diablo and then let Jill help him ride in few practice circles.

 

***********************************************************************

That night every monster was excited about the mule ride into the canyon and were talking about it in Afi and Fiametta’s room.

 

“…Sans did you see… the mule eat the treat out of my hand?...I’ve never…had an animal...be that friendly so quick before…”

 

“yeah, they really _warmed up_ to you” Sans showed Grillby a photo he had nabbed of the historic moment.

 

“..Ooh..Sans…be a dear and print me a copy of that one…” Fiametta wanted photographic evidence of Grillby bonding with nature.

 

“sure, let me know if you like any of these.”

 

Fiametta looked through Sans photos while Sans and Grillby chatted.

 

“…I…am glad you are tall enough to ride on mules…”

 

“ugh it was a lot closer than i thought it would be. i had paps measure me, and he said 4 foot 8 inches,  then Alphys measured me as 4 foot 6 and a half, and Undyne was the least helpful. She kept saying ‘eh close enough to five feet.’ and well, i hate to admit it but it looked like i might really be 4 foot 6 and ¾, but the human let me slide.”

 

 

*************************************************************************************

The next morning the elementals all got ready right away, and decided they would wear the ponchos as a safeguard against the wind and any accidental rain.

 

The wranglers untied the mules from the posts and the mules automatically filed a rank and file line, each mule getting behind their favorite friend. The guides slowly checked everyone’s posture and waited for everyone to get comfortable before starting the slow walk to the Canyon’s rim.  Their group was at the back of the line behind a group of humans.

 

Sans looked farther ahead, and to Sans surprise a family of Dragon monsters also from Hotland and a rabbit monster were ahead of them. Two older scarlet dragon monsters were chatting with Afi and Fiametta, and a couple of young well muscled monsters were up front, a dragon and a rabbit out front-

 

“…Sans… aren’t those Asgore’s guards…”

 

The two were holding hands as their mules walked next to each other.

 

“definitely.”

 

Afi and Fiametta’s mules took every opportunity to walk next to each other as well.

 

Sans tried to hold Grillby’s hand, too, but his mule was more excited about putting his face as close to Grillby’s mule’s butt as possible… Grillby tried not to laugh as Sans’ mule kept this up.

 

“Sorry Sans…we can’t out-romance them…”

 

“oh well. can’t complain about who’s in front of me.”

 

Grillby swished his hair as flamboyantly as he could and then slid slightly off the mule- only for Sans to correct him with magic.

 

“Need help back there?”

 

The guide showed Grillby how to grip the reigns again as Magmus snorted.

 

 


	30. In which we witness the circle of life, and Papyrus makes some new friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans and Grillby continue their lovely vacation and run into some familiar faces. Papyrus makes some new mysterious friends.

The ride started along the rim of the canyon…with a nice view of the dusty yellow and orange mesas. As the ride continued the mules reformed a straight line. Magmus’, Afi’s, and Fiametta’s mules had moved up the line, and the royal guard couple were in front of Grillby.

 

Sans and the elemental were at the end of the line, and a guide was behind them. It was actually pretty nice being so close to the guide, since the human had pretty sharp eyes and was pointing out the wildlife.

 

“If you look up you can see a red-tailed hawk circling, you can see that their wingspan is much smaller than that of an eagles. Only four feet! The circling is to find prey.”

 

The guide looked around and pointed towards a brown and green shrubby bush.

 

“Ah, and you can see the cottontails in the bushes, eating some of the native grasses. The red tailed hawks will sometimes prey on them-”

 

“Like, Wait what, dude?” Guard 01, the large golden muscular rabbit seemed distressed by this fact.

 

The human guide, seemed unsure what to say, and started to try to fix the situation.

 

“Well, um, uh… they hunt other things like lizards!”

 

Royal Guard 02, now turned around. He was a blue muscular dragon who seemed to be sweating a lot in the heat. Their accent was similar to Grillby’s, although the seemed to be a fan of brevity.

 

“…we are safe?”

 

“Oh, absolutely! Even the California condors could not carry you two off! Um, um, it can only get little things.”

 

As if on cue the hawk dove down and snatched up a snake. Grillby, Sans, and the Royal Guards watched in horror as the hawk dropped the writhing snake to kill it, before re-swooping to carry it off.

 

“Like, that’s the circle of life, Bro.”

 

Grillby pat his mule’s dusty coat and tried to enjoy watching the rabbits.

 

****************************************************************************

 

The group started their descent into the canyon.

 

Grillby definitely felt his form stretch as for hours the mule leaned back at a sharp angle…ahhh…he hadn’t stretched like that for ages.

 

*pop

 

Apparently Sans hadn’t stretched back like that for a while either. Most of the bones in his spine popped.

 

Grillby was feeling a little nervous. His mule, Diablo was scaling the terrain expertly, each deft hoof easily bouncing to the next step. Grillby wished Diable would expertly not hug the edge of the cliff.

 

Grillby looked down over the edge… ooph. He wasn’t sure if he could survive falling that-he supposed he could try to go fierier-but he couldn’t completely change into fire. And if his soul or his magma core took damage he’d-wait.

 

He had to tell that one to Sans.

 

Grillby turned to look at the skeleton, who was busy giving his mule’s neck a rub.

 

“hey, grillbabe. having fun?”

 

  
“Well… it is a bit nerve-racking…looking…over the edge… if it weren’t for you being here…able to catch me… I would…worry I would be…bread…er crap… toast…”

 

Sans eyes lit up at the pun anyway and he let out a laugh.

 

“haha grillbz. well don’t worry while, i’m _falling_ for you, i you don’t have to worry about me _horsing around_. i’d get you in a soulbeat.”

 

A large gust of wind started…blowing off one of the humans hats…a tour guide urged their mule forward, to try to chase it, but Sans used his magic to place it back on the humans head.

 

“Woah!”

 

“Holy smokes!”

 

The human gave Sans an appreciative thanks and tightened their hat on their head with a little string part.

 

 

The guide rode back behind Sans and gave him a high-five on the way.

 

“That is awesome! I can’t tell you how handy that would be for this job! Are all monsters magic like that?”

 

“…uh… well most monsters have some magic. but its different for all of us. this guy’s obviously good at fire stuff, and i’m good at, uh, skeleton stuff.”

 

“Well, if you or any of your skeleton friends want a job, you’re hired.”

 

“sure thing!” Sans smiled.

 

Grillby was hoping Papyrus wouldn’t want to work here, too…he was hoping to ask Papyrus if he wanted to keep his schedule into the school year, Paps was such a hard worker.

 

******************************************************

 

Back in Ebott, Papyrus was, in fact, working to the bone, Nyeh heh heh!

 

Undyne and Alphys hadn’t been able to see him for a while, to the point where Papyrus was missing them and trying to fill the void with work and activities... but well, that was a lost cause.

 

LD and Doggo were visiting their parents together, the Ballet troupe was off performing and well, he had just joined a month ago so he hadn’t made the cut. Henry from class hadn’t wanted to go out for dinner… that had stung a bit, and if he bought any more action figures his bookshelf might collapse…

 

So it was time to immerse himself in work.

 

The restaurant had done well in the morning. He and Jiggles now had a rhythm going to handle the rush of orders. But, while they were improving, the restaurant was getting busier with each passing day.

 

Papyrus noticed that more and more monsters had been coming to the surface lately. Many from Hotland and from deep in the Capitol were finally coming up. Grillby’s cousin Fuku, two Lizard twin men, and a fiery bat lady had asked if he was in. The fiery lizard twins in particular seemed sad he wasn’t in town. Papyrus told them to come back in a week.

 

Papyrus was working pretty hard without the flame monster, the deep fryers were a bit slower than the elemental at cooking fries.

 

Jiggles floated through the kitchen wall with another order. Papyrus wished she would do that a little less suddenly! He had dropped a thankfully empty plate on his foot again.

 

“ohhh. Sorry dearie…but Papy,.can you handle bringing food out for a few minutes I need to go to the ladies room...” Jiggly crooned out.

 

Papyrus had no idea why Jiggly needed to go to the bathroom, but he supposed she needed a break.

 

“NO PROBLEM! I AM JUST FINISHING GROUP 27’S ORDER.”

 

Papyrus arranged the fries and burgers, and added a little flame shaped dab of ketchup to each plate. After Grillby went off, Cindy’s brother had brought in some new kiddie menu coloring pages. He had added a little flame-monster mascot, kind of a chibby version of Grillby with glasses, and Papyrus had been trying to copy it on the food. Customers seemed to love the little mascot.

 

He brought the order out to group 27. Papyrus almost dropped a second plate in surprise!

 

A skeleton, a zombie, and a mummy were actually at the bar. The three were dressed to the nines, and were nervously waiting for their food. The three of them seemed equally surprised to see him.

 

“HELLO, WHO HAD THE BURGER AND FRIES WITH NO ONIONS?”

 

The three ladies giggled, and two of them nudged the mummy who tried to brush the others off.

 

“ _here_!” A short skeleton woman wearing a red dress was seated at the table. She had taped gold hoop earrings to the side of her head, and had drawn lipstick above her teeth. Papyrus thought he should try the earrings some time, they looked pretty classy.

 

“OK, AND WHO HAS THE ONE WITH NO PICKLES?”

 

“…uhhhhhhhh….heeeerrrreeee…” A green tinted zombie woman with a very nice black and gold dress flipped her long red hair… only a small piece fell off, and she gracefully stuck it back on her head.

 

“OK, AND THE REGULAR BURGER IS YOURS?”

 

The mummy lady in a cool sparkly green blouse pant combo nodded her head shyly, not saying anything and seemingly having a paragraph long text session on her phone. The many bracelets on her hands jangled as she typed. The other two nudged her and she took her plate.

 

“I HOPE YOU ENJOY YOUR MEAL. IS THIS YOUR FIRST TRIP TO THE SURFACE?”

 

The Skeleton lady spoke up, excited to start a conversation.

 

“ _Oh, Well you know, Asgore wants to move Little Necropolis up, with the power going out. Some of the old bone bags want to stay but we are looking for a place to move. Do you live up here already? I’ve never seen you before_?”

 

“OH, I DIDN’T GROW UP IN LITTLE NECROPOLIS. MY BROTHER AND I WERE, UM... RAISED IN FOSTER CARE. WE NEVER REALLY MET ANY OTHER SKELETONS OR MUMMIES.”

 

“ _Or Mummies?”_

The skeleton lady peered at Papyrus.

 

“OH WELL I FOUND OUT I AM PART MUMMY RECENTLY.”

 

The Skeleton and Zombie poked their friend again while giggling. Papyrus had no idea why.

 

“….uhhhh…well….of…cooooouurse you….arrrrreee….it is written all…….oveeeerr…yooouur faaaace…” The Zombie woman smiled.

 

“OH, UM…SURE. PRECICELY. IT WAS... DEFINATELY OBVIOUS NYEH HEH HEH. CAN I GET YOU ANYTHING ELSE?”

 

The three ladies giggled one more time, saying they were good, and Papyrus went back in. He felt his soul flicker- did they just check his- Papyrus looked back, and saw the Skeleton lady trying to look inconspicuous.

 

Jiggles was back and taking orders, but as the lunch period continued business stayed calm, so Papyrus helped bring out plates to different customers.

 

He handed out more fries and burgers to college students, a group of Dino-Monsters, and a broke up an argument between a few Ooze Monsters who were arguing over what the human sport on TV was called.

 

He felt his soul chill again, and saw that the zombie was trying to call him over; the friend had stepped out for a minute to talk on the phone.

 

“IS THAT A THING ZOMBIES CAN DO?”

 

“…oooopss….sooorrryy…you…don’t mind magic dooo….yooouuu?”

 

“NO, NOT A PROBLEM. I AM VERY MAGICAL MYSELF.” Papyrus tried to create a small chill on the water refill jug.

 

The zombie smiled- it wasn’t a bad attempt for a skeleton.

 

“ _Hey. It is our friend’s birthday, she’s having a hard time coming to the surface, do you think we could order a dessert for her?”_

“ABSOLUTELY! WE HAVE A VARIETY OF MILKSHAKES, WHICH I HIGHLY RECOMMEND.”

 

The pair chose one, and Papyrus went back to the kitchen. Papyrus had a feeling it wasn’t the mummy woman’s birthday…but coming to the surface was a special occasion! And the restaurant was pretty not busy… so why not? He got one of the sparkler candles Grillby was particularly fond of and put it in the milkshake…. He swore they were a little much for birthday candles, but when he had suggested smaller ones, Grillby looked disappointed… so giant sparklers it was.

 

Cindy came in, rolling up her sleeves, and ready to jump to the fryer.

 

“Oh is it someone’s birthday?”

 

“I THINK IT IS THE MUMMY’S BIRTHDAY, OR HER PRETEND BIRTHDAY. HER FRIENDS REALLY SEEM TO WANT HER TO ENJOY THE SURFACE.”

 

“Ok, let’s give her a warm welcome.”

 

Cindy and Papyrus brought out the sparking milkshake. They both sang the corporate non trademarked birthday song, but of course Papyrus’ voice was louder.

 

“HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY, FROM ALL OF US TO YOU. WE WISH IT WAS OUR BIRTHDAY SO WE COULD PARTY TOO! “

 

The Mummy woman’s eyes lit up a sparkling gold in surprise as Papyrus and Cindy continued.

 

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MAY ALL YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE!”

 

Papyrus and Cindy did jazz hands and handed the Mummy woman the milkshake with the ridiculous candle. The mummy unwrapped a few bandages and blew out the candle.

 

“…oh….Niiiile…yoouuu…have such…niiiice teeth…” The Zombie woman crooned and then looked frustrated, as Papyrus did not notice.

 

“ _THANK YOU ZOSTRA_.” Nile whispered.

 

Papyrus raised his magical eyebrows… Nile had the same font-voice.

 

Papyrus and Cindy walked back to the kitchen, Papyrus’ shift was ending, and he finished waiting on the couple of tables he served. The tall skeleton headed over to the trio of monsters, and handed them the check they all paid separately.

 

“…heeeeyy…sorry tooo be forwaaard…buut itt is raaare to meet a new skeletooon…wheeen is…youuurr…shift over….waaaant to haaaang out?...”

 

Papyrus thought about it for a few seconds- his shift was ending, and most everyone else was busy having babies and being on vacation. He met some necrotic friends for the first time in his life-it wasn’t a hard choice

 

“THAT WOULD BE FUN. YOU ARE TOURING THE SURFACE RIGHT? SO THERE ARE A LOT OF NICE THINGS ABOUT THE SURFACE THAT WE DON’T HAVE UNDERGROUND. WAS THERE ANYWHERE YOU WERE GOING?”

 

“ _Honestly we just heard about the restaurant, and were just going to walk the rest of it.”_

“OH WELL THE SURFACE IS PRETTY BIG, SO WALKING WOULD TAKE A WHILE.” Papyrus had learned that the surface was large in school, but he had imagined it was maybe just double or triple the size of the Underground. He figured they had been thinking similarly.

“ _OH, WOW, I HAD WANTED TO SEE A LOT OF IT.”_

 

Papyrus thought for a moment.

 

“I HAVE A CAR, WANT A TOUR OF THE SURFACE?”

 

“ _Oh wow, you wouldn’t mind?”_

 

******************************************************************************

 

The three ladies, Nile the Mummy, Zostra the Zombie, and Apple the Skeleton happily hopped into Papyrus’ convertible.

 

“ _Oh, wow you drive?”_

“NYEHHEHHEH. ABSOLUTELY! IT IS CONVENIENT TO GET AROUND SINCE EVERYTHING IS SO SPREAD OUT UP HERE! I THINK WE COULD VISIT SOME PLACES YOU LIKE. IS THERE ANYTHING THAT INTERESTS YOU?”

 

“ _I want to see somewhere with lots of humans.”_ Apple gave a very Sans-like smile.

“…I would like to seeeeee….someeewheeerree…shady…” Zostra moaned.

 

“ _MAYBE SOMEWHERE WITH SAND?”_ Nile seemed unsure of where to go.

“OK, HOW ABOUT THE DOWNTOWN MALL, THE PARK NEAR THE WOODS, AND THE BEACH. DO YOU LIKE SWIMMING?”

 

“…Uhhh… well…we weren’t…really allowed to leave the capitol when we were younger… so no…” Zostra moaned.

 

“UM WELL WE CAN STAY IN THE SHALLOWS IF YOU WANT. AND I TRAINED AS A LIFEGUARD SO I CAN HELP YOU IF YOU ARE INTERESTED.”

 

Apple’s eyes lit up.

 

“ _Can we get swimsuits at the mall?”_

“SURE! THEY HAVE AN AMAZING SELECTION OF SWIMSUITS FOR ALL OCCASIONS! I’LL EVEN TREAT YOU GUYS IF YOU WANT, THE BEACH IS GREAT!”

Papyrus started by taking them to a mall. Just the ride was fun!

 

 

Zostra took a selfie with the wind blowing her hair of the convertible. Papyrus was pretty jealous, even if she had to hold it so it wouldn’t blow off, he had always wanted hair. He had even tried a few hair kits but to no avail. He offered to put he hood up so she could put her hand down, but the monsters were enjoying the breeze.

 

Zostra then asked if she could take a photo of everyone in the car together. Apparently the Zombie  had a pretty big Undernet account. She asked for Papyrus’ handle and was posting to her account religiously #Traveling on a Highway. #New skele-friend. Papyrus’ phone kept buzzing from the notifications.

 

Papyrus smiled at the hashtag, and the group chatted a bit, explaining that despite being in their twenties they hadn’t been allowed to leave Little Necropolis much before. Necrotics tended to live in pretty tight knit groups, so they were surprised to meet a skeleton they had never heard of!

 

“…UGH…aaaand…there are sooo…few of usssss….daaaad waaantts meee tooo date a zombie…butttt moooostt…are in their sixtieeeessss…..bleeehhhhhhh….noooo thaaaannkksss….”

 

“ _There are a few more skeletons, but in my grade, it was just me, Baskerville and Bodoni. Baskers and Bodini think I’m too ridiculous to hang out with. Trust me, those two are so stuffy and old-fashioned Zhurg-heads. You can’t even toss a bone attack at them without them telling the teacher, ugh.”_

“OH ZHURG IS THAT GUY THAT SKELETONS WORSHIP RIGHT.”

 

“ _Ugh please tell me you don’t believe he’ll rise in battle to destroy Asgore and humankind.”_

“UM, I KNOW ASGORE AND HUMANS, SO I HOPE NOT.”

 

“ _Exactly! King Fluffybuns is pretty nice. Besides Zhurg’s traditions are stupid, no magic, no non-traditional dances, no going out of Necropolis-and if I have to watch one more necrotic wedding I swear….”_

“WHAT IS SO BAD ABOUT NECROTIC WEDDINGS?”

 

_“Trust me, if you had to watch a couple for 12 hours to see if the couple emerge at sunrise, you’d be bored, too.”_

“WAIT-THAT’S FOR WEDDINGS?”

 

 Papyrus described how he had made Grillby and Sans do the burial, and the others could not stop laughing.

 

“ _WELL I GUESS WE CAN’T TRY TO LURE YOUR BROTHER IN ON A DATE, TOO, HE’S MARRIED.”_

“NYEH HEH HEH, SO YOU LURED ME INTO A DATE?”

 

The three giggled.

 

_“It can just be a friendship date, if you like!”_

Papyrus smiled, he didn’t mind.

**********************************************************************************

Underground there weren’t many big stores even in the capitol, as most furniture was hand made or scavenged. The mall was a mecca of commercial goods, and the three monster ladies spent the first few minutes running to each window and just enjoying how many things were for sale.

 

Then Apple’s eyes lit up at the large number of humans walking around.

 

_“Wow… there are so many humans here!”_

 

Apple took a few phone pictures of the crowd in the mall. #HUMANS!!!

 

Everything about the mall was new to the monsters, even the random pop songs playing in each store- much more modern than the stuff that fell into the Underground. They spent the first ten minutes just listening to a very catchy song emanating from a pretzel stand.

 

The man at the pretzel stand didn’t seem to like the way Zostra moaned to the music. The man offered her a free pretzel, and shoed them off.

 

 

Papyrus frowned as the monsters hash-tagged the free pretzel. He brought them to his favorite clothing store and everyone picked out a nice swimsuit. Papyrus needed a new suit anyway and the three seemed very fashion forward. He normally wouldn’t have gone for such a bold suit: a bright red square cut, but red did look good on him. Zostra picked out a very flattering black and gold tankini two-piece with a brazilian bottom, while Apple went for a traditional floral bandeau one-piece. Nile was convinced to go with a black triangle cut side tie two-piece.

 

Zostra took a selfie and posted it to the Undernet #Surfaceshopping

 

Papyrus didn’t mind paying for the suits, and when the others realized what he conversion rate for gold was, they each bought a few more things for themselves and their families.

 

“I LOVE THIS CROP TOP!”

 

“ _PINK IS DEFINITELY YOUR COLOR”_

Papyrus and Nile bonded over a passion for fashion while the other two hi-fived each other over some new pants not from the garbage dump.

 

On their way out of the clothing store, a human stopped them and told them they were having a special on nails and Zostra’s yellow nails definitely needed some cleaning.  The lady cleaning her nails worked furiously.

 

“…I’m sooorrry…it’s….beeen a while…since I had them…cleeeaanned…”

 

“Don’t worry honey, I’ve seen worse. Do you want an application?” The human asked.

 

“….uhhhhh….sure…”

 

The human carefully applied gold stiletto nails which Zostra beamed at. Zostra pulled her hand off and laid it on the table to get a good selfie angle, wow this was a cool.

 

The others naturally wanted to try, as well. Nile unpeeled a few bandages, she only had fingernails on her left hand, but enjoyed having a blue ombre effect painted onto them.

 

Apple tried some stick on nails, and Papyrus decided to let them paint little nail shapes onto his fingers. He could always wear gloves if he didn’t like it.

 

 

Now feeling a lot more glamorous, the group reluctantly left the mall, and headed to the park. Zostra was excited to take a walk through the wooded area, the trees were really nice. Papyrus hadn’t taken the time to relax and enjoy them before.

 

“ _Ooh what is that darling creature, some cat?”_

“OOH THAT’S A SQUIREL. THEY LIVE ALMOST EVERWHERE ON THE SURFACE. I HAVE A CAT IF YOU WANT TO MEET THEM LATER.” Papyrus wondered if Squirrel monsters were a thing, but he supposed he had never met one.

 

The squirrel boldly ran past them, dove into a trashcan, and proudly scurried up a tree with an apple core to gnaw on.  The three ladies frantically took pictures.

 

A second squirrel climbed a tree and the group decided to take another selfie with it. Papyrus was having fun with all the selfies, he took one for his blog.

 

They entered a denser part of the forest, and the canopy only let small bits of sunlight shine through. Zostra enjoyed this shaded effect.

 

Lots of flowers were growing in tall bushes to the side of the path, and the group enjoyed taking more pictures, especially of the bees and insects on them. Papyrus kept super still… a butterfly landed on his arm and everyone wanted to take a picture. It was just a cabbage moth, but everyone was excited.

 

“ _It loves you Papyrus!”_

The three headed out of the forest, after a few more squirrel selfies. Nile had to keep silencing her phone, someone kept calling her.

 

It was a bit of a drive to the beach, an hour, so Papyrus stopped at a gas station. The ladies insisted on grabbing dinner since he had gotten some of their clothes and Papyrus’ eye’s almost popped out as they went a bit overboard with the human snacks at the gas station.

 

Nile had grabbed an odd assortment: pink pickled eggs, some fruit cups, burritos, and a pint of Ben and Jerry’s cookie dough ice cream. Apple seemed to have a bit of a sweet tooth, and had grabbed six assorted pastries, green apples- “ _I have never had one even though I’m named after them.”_ and a 2-liter of grape soda _._ Zostra had grabbed several jerky ropes, string cheese, red bull, and to Papyrus’ disappointment some kind of sad gas station sushi.

 

Papyrus decided that it was now his life’s mission to introduce them all to the wonderful world of pasta.

 

*****************************************************************************

 

In the car they got to know each other better.

 

“ _So I work at the family funeral home. I tend to do arrangements with paper flowers, but now that we have the surface, I would like to train to be a florist.”_

“…I…juuuust work…in an office… the work issss… pretty miiiindlesss…buut I alsooo…. Read fortunes…” Zostra got bored just thinking about her work.

_“MY PARENTS DO NOT WANT ME TO LEAVE THE HOUSE, SO I’VE MOSTLY BEEN MONSTER SITTING AND WORKING ODD JOBS. I JUST DO NOT KNOW WHAT I WANT TO DO.”_

“WHY DON’T THEY WANT YOU TO LEAVE?”

_“IT IS COMMON FOR MUMMY MOTHERS TO BE STRICT. SHE WANTED ME TO FOCUS ON MY STUDIES, I RECEIVED A DEGREE IN PUZZLE DESIGN. IT’S NOT FAIR THOUGH. MY BROTHERS GET TO LEAVE AND THEY DON’T EVEN HAVE A DEGREE!”_

 

“OH THAT’S AWFUL. I LOVE DESIGNING PUZZLES. I USED TO DESIGN THEM TO TRY TO CAPTURE HUMANS. WITH A DEGREE LIKE THAT THEY HAVE TO LET YOU OUT OF THE HOUSE. WELL, YOU ARE AN ADULT, SO YOU CAN MAKE YOUR OWN DECISIONS NEH HEH HEH. I MEAN YOU CAME OUT TODAY RIGHT?”

 

“ _RIGHT! I DID!”_ Nile closed her phone and moved it into her pocket.

 

**************************************************************************

 

Once they go to the beach, everyone immediately started enjoying the sights. Papyrus came to the beach often enough that he had a few towels in the trunk, and the group had fun attempting sun tan…

 

Well, Zostra had fun sun tanning, while the rest built a sandcastle.

 

Nile used her magic to raise the sand up into a little maze, and Papyrus added little bone gates that he lowered with gravity.  The two giggled, they were having fun!

 

After a bit of tanning, everyone wanted to jump in the water.

 

Nile unwrapped some of her leg bandages, and the group headed towards the waves, but then the mummy scurried back as her phone went off. She came back looking upset, but pointedly grabbed Papyrus’ and Apples hands. Zostra linked into Apple and the group charged into the water, humans moving out of the way to let them into the shallows…

 

 

The monster ladies laughed and smiled as the warm water hit them.

 

**************************************************************************

 

Back on the mule, Sans was starting to wonder what Papyrus was doing. His phone kept buzzing in his pack… and as much as he wanted to check it, well he was now crossing a very long suspension bridge over a canyon, poor Grillby sounded like he was reciting some fire prayer as he crossed his fingers, and clung to his mule’s mane. The bridge swaying slightly and sinking with each step.

 

Buzz…buzz…buzz… he figured the Skeleton was doing a mass pasta bake again, and decided he’d check it later tonight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys don't mind Papyrus meeting some other necrotics... things didn't work out with the ballet guy :(.


	31. The Mummy/In which Afi and Grillby have a heart to heart...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Papyrus and his friends have some fun in the sun, and Grillby and family do the same. Afi and Grillby talk about some important things.

Papyrus, Nile, Apple, and Zostra had waded out a little farther into the water. Papyrus had to keep shifting everyone back left, the ocean was pulling everyone as the tide got stronger, they headed to the edge of the waves.

 

Zostra discovered seashells, and the group took a walk, enjoying the view and looking for more shells. Apple found a jackknife shell, Zostra had a collection of clamshells and arks, and Nile had found… a broken limpet.

 

The other two, happy with their finds decided to go tan some more, while Nile kept looking around, only to find more broken shells.

 

“A LOT OF THE SHELLS GET BROKEN BY THE END OF THE DAY SADLY, YOU HAVE TO GO PRETTY EARLY TO FIND GOOD ONES!”

 

“ _DID YOU WAKE UP EARLY TO FIND THE SHELL ON YOUR NECKLACE?”_

“OH WOW YOU NOTICED MY NECLACE.”

 

Papyrus moved his red scarf, to see the shell was under it, he had been wearing it out of habit.

Papyrus had forgotten he was wearing the pretty Junonia from the baby shower.

 

“OH, MY GOOD FRIEND UNDYNE GOT IT FOR ME! SHE’S A FISH MONSTER SO SHE CAN DIVE INTO THE OCEAN! SHE EVEN ADDED HER OWN SPECIAL SHIELD SPELL TO IT IN CASE I AM IN DANGER. SHE REALLY CARES ABOUT MY SAFETY.”

 

_“OH…YOUR GOOD FRIEND. IS SHE UM… ONE OF THOSE PRETTY FISH PEOPLE WITH LONG FLOWY HAIR?”_

“WELL, NYEH HEH HEH, I SUPPOSE SO.”

 

Papyrus decided not to mention Undyne would probably make a face and suplex something if she heard anyone call her pretty.

Nile felt the top of her head…ugh she had more hair than Apple, but less than Zostra. Being a mummy had its downsides. How could she compete with a mermaid? Wait was he already dating a mermaid? Come to think of it she had no idea if he was actually single.

 

Nile made a face, and as Papyrus caught her eye she and tried to hide it with a smile, maybe he didn’t catch that.

 

Nope-Papyrus had noticed… no one can fool the Great Papyrus! Hmm why would Nile look sad… aha! She wanted a cool shell necklace, too.

 

“UM, DO NOT WORRY, I WILL FIND YOU A NICE ONE, TOO.”

 

Papyrus did the Papyrus thing, and gallivanted around the beach looking for a shell while Nile stood there flabbergasted… The tall skeleton walked into the ocean, with his head underwater to the alarm of several lifeguards… just as they rushed over he emerged smiling.

 

“HERE, I THINK IT MATCHES YOUR COOL BANDAGES!”

 

Papyrus tossed her a shiny marginella shell with a grey and white banding pattern.

 

 _“OH WOW YOU DID NOT HAVE TO ACTUALLY FIND ME ONE!”_ Nile looked happy.

 

Papyrus tried to pose as the lifeguards looked away, hands on his hips-unaware that a huge chunk of seaweed was stuck on his now wet scarf.

 

“I WOULD GIVE YOU MY NECLACE, BUT UNDYNE GAVE IT TO ME AS A SPECIAL GIFT! I HELPED RESCUE HER EGGS FROM A STORM, THE MONSTERLINGS ARE SUPER CUTE.”

 

Nile panicked.

 

_“WAIT…YOU HAVE KIDS?”_

Oh- maybe that is why Nile was- oh-Papyrus suddenly blushed a bit, an orange glow over his cheekbones,

 

“NYEH HEH HEH… NOPE! UNDYNE IS WITH ANOTHER FRIEND OF MINE ALPHYS! I… UM LET’S JUST SAY I HAVEN’T EVEN DATED SOMEONE STEADILY YET. YOU THOUGHT I WAS...UM…I…”

Nile felt a bit dumb now. Papyrus was muttering and rubbing the back of his neck.

 

She noticed the seaweed on his scarf.

 

“ _THAT IS SUCH A COOL SCARF. LET ME GET THE SEAWEED OFF.”_

While Papyrus was stunned that someone besides Sans had called his scarf cool, Nile gently grabbed the sopping wet scarf, and carefully picked the seaweed off. She held the seaweed out...

 

_“HEY PAPYRUS WANT TO BE A MUMMY TOO?”_

It was Nile’s turn to run around the beach while Papyrus looked confused. Papyrus continued to look confused as Nile, Apple, and Zostra proceeded to turn him into a Mummy bog monster hybrid with many pieces of seaweed. Nile then carefully wrapped the scarf around Papyrus again.

 

The seaweed was kind of itchy, but it looked pretty good in the phone picture! Nile deleted several missed call without looking at them.

 

“OH MAN BEING A MUMMY IS AWESOME!”

 

The whole group laughed, Papyrus brushed the seaweed off and let Nile put the scarf on him again. The group proceeded to have a disgusting picnic dinner. Papyrus was surprised he liked the pink pickled eggs.

 

As the sun set, the group finally headed home, Papyrus gave everyone a lift to the Underground entrance.

 

“ _This was fun, but I am going to have sand stuck between my bones for months!”_ Apple smiled as they got out of the car... and were met by another monster.

**********************************************************************

 

The mule ride was fun, but Sans going to have sand stuck between his bones for months. Sans groaned and rolled out of the shower at Phantom Ranch.

 

While Sans had showered, Magmus helped the guides cook, and Grillby and the nice stable ground bonded.

 

The group had reached the ranch a few hours ago, and when not cooking or hugging the ground in joy, Grillby and family had enjoyed some sunbathing …and now even long after the sun had set, most had a healthy glow, although Afi was still only dimly glowing red, and was oddly still mostly man shaped.

 

Fiametta and Magmus were bonding playing some sort of elemental checkers variant with little flames and magma blobs in the ground.

 

Sans had jumped into the river, taken two showers, and was considering jumping in a river again. He was pretty dusty and overheated even after all the cleaning. The Rabbit and Dragon guardsmen seemed to be having a similar experience, the Dragon guy was still sweating every time he stepped out of the creek.

 

Sans smiled at his elemental. He was happy to see Grillby’s flame this bright. Whether it was the relaxing, the hot sun, or the fear of heights… he looked healthier.

 

Sans ruffled Grillby’s flame hair and joined the elemental to the campfire. The elemental had been stealing Sans’ hoodie again and watching his stuff. Sans looked at his phone 12 new messages from Papyrus, maybe he should check them-

 

“Hoo hoo hoo… Sans…the skELETON… _wATER_ you dOING on lAND… I was beginning to thINK my sON wAS dATING a merMAN?...”

 

Sans smiled at Afi, the guy was really a big softie once you got to know him.

 

“well, as i _under-sand_ , until i learn to burn dust off myself, i’ll have to stick to water, or i might become a mud monster.”

 

Sans watched, as Magmus shifted forward in the lawn chair the humans had set up by the fires. Magmus moved his feet into the flames letting them warm up.

 

Grillby looked concerned… he should not need to do that... The bartender added a few of his own magical flames to the fire and they crawled up Afi, who smiled.

 

“…SoO…GrillbERT…nOW that yoU are on…the surfACE… whAT…WIll You…do with yOUR time?”

 

“…Well…I enjoy running the bar… and working hard…but we should really see each other more often…now that waterfall is not in the middle…” Grillby put on a smile for Afi.

 

“…hOO hoo HOOoo…gRILLBERT… I dO NOT EXPect yOU to jUST work and HANG Around a boring oLD stEAM VENT…lIKE me… hOO HOO HOO…when I WAS YOUR AGE…I WAs having fun… not wORKING to dUST…” Afi laughed.

 

“what did you get up to at grillby’s age?” Sans was curious.

 

“HOO HOO HOO…wELL… I wAS a bIT…oF a wILD CHILD… whICH…despite what yOU mAY susPECT … is why yOUR MOM LIkes me...hOO hoo…” Afi winked at Sans and Grillby.

 

“…Hoo…… tO ANSWER your question…I mOSTLY frustrated my PARENTS by nOT sETTLing down…and gOING dANCING…wiTH mUSIC they did NOT lIke…Typical…it IS nATURAL…for elEMENTALS to BE rEBELLious tHOUGH… sO GRILLBERT IS A fLAME oFF THE OLD lOG… Hoo HOO HOO…” Afi ruffled Grillby’s green hair.

 

“…hair coloring though…huh…SON…the bIG thing…iN my DAY… WAS to tRY to stICK geMS in yOUR head or hAIR… bUT… I sADLY dO NOT…HAve much hair… anYMORE…”

 

Afi picked up a pebble and tried to stick it into his forehead. But his forehead was a bit solid…Grillby’s flames were flickering quickly.

 

Afi smiled, and stuck the pebble in Grillby’s head instead. Grillby, tried to make that part a bit lava-like, so the pebble stayed in pretty well.

 

“…NOo…I wAS A PARTY ANImal…I mEAN the pARTYING…eventually cAUGHT UP…. and well…ChARcoAL… my first wIFE… that is SANs… got unexpectedly pregnANT…”

 

Afi smiled, and continued.

 

“…BUT we were in lOVE…so… We hAD magMUS… we gOT married…hAD tO Work hARD vERY qUICKLY…and wELL….it… it wAS sTRESSFUl foR HER…sHE flickered away when MAGmus was only a fiRELING…”

 

Afi’s face stopped shifting completely for a second.

 

“after Charcoal… …I…tRIED to sLOW dOWN a BIT… hAVE fun agAIN… wELL…at lEAST to RELax…to BE THERE fOR mY sON…which hAS allowed mE…to lIVE a lONG lIFE full of… lOVE… and lAVA…”

 

Afi smiled towards Fiametta and Magmus, and then at Grillby and his face started to shift for a few seconds.

 

Sans phone buzzed again, Grillby was looking kind of upset, like he wanted to talk to Afi. Sans felt like he was ruining the moment.

 

“family is very important, i think my brother might need me for a bit, i’ll be back in a pinch.” Sans short cutted back into the tent to give the two some rather needed alone time.

 

Grillby would thank Sans later.

 

“…father I’ve… been wanting to chat with you…”

 

“…oH HOO HOO… me too… sO lET me finish my stORY…” Afi leaned in towards his son.

 

Grillby nodded politely.

 

“….so tHE mORAL of that story…wAS that…evEN after a sAD time…gOOD can COME again latER…”

 

Grillby felt Afi’s eyes fix on him.

 

“…I am glad you… and mom got together…” Grillby smiled at Afi.

 

“…hOO HOO HOO… the mORAL of the stORY…Was…for yOU…SOn…”

 

“…uhhh…”

 

“…yOU nEVER tOLD me what hapPENED…and yOU do NOT HAve to…bUT…yOU worried US SO… yOU jUST stOPPED …tALKING…hAVING FUN… gOING DANcing… sEEING other Monsters…and bURNING brIGHTLY…for a wHILE…thERE wERE a fEW days… and yOU decided to MOVE AWAY…to SNOWden…soON after…”

 

Grillby’s flame went low again and Afi paused. Afi felt he probably shouldn’t have asked.

 

“I…I…look…I… just wanted to start over…somewhere new…and move on with my life… but dad I want to talk to you-” Grillby tried to start.

 

“wAS it bECAUSE we WERE pUSHING yOU toO mUCH into…OUR carEERS?...”

 

Afi remembered he had tried to get Grillbert out of the funk by trying to get him a job at the puzzle factory… but that the elemental didn’t even make it out of his room…and then Fiametta had tried to get him a job in the guard…and his usually calm son had actually shouted, flames high, that he would rather ‘turn to mud’ than work for those –those….he couldn’t remember the phrase Grillbert had used but Fiametta had been upset…

 

“…I know I disappointed you guys…I just…well…I am honestly awful at puzzles… and I don’t want to hurt people with my magic…even if they deserve it…I am sorry for being so…against it…you two were wonderful…supported me even though I was only a poor or average student…you even helped me with the loan…”

 

Afi moved forward to put a hand on his son’s shoulder.

 

“…GRIllbERT…we shOULD say it mORE often...we are aCTUALLY… incredibly pROUD of YOU…your business is so successful…uNDERGROUND…and uP hERE…. wE…just rEALIZED…yOU have been OVerWORking…aND… avoiding rELATIONships…until SAns…” Afi’s face was bubbling quickly… he had wanted to talk to Grillbert for a while.

 

“……” Grillby did not know what to say.

 

“…I dO nOT nEED to know what hAPPENED…but…I should be HONEST… I hAVE a guESS...that was whY… I jumped to fIGHT sANS rIGHT Away…I dO NOT wANT any…MONSter to HURT yOU… bUT…”

 

Afi looked up at Grillby again.

 

“…sO…prOMISE ME…YOu will trY…tO enJOY LIFE…hAVE fUN agAIN… aND foRGIVE mE fOR pUSHING yOU to do OTHERWISE… to dO PUZZLe work… or hAVE mONSTERLINGS… …bECAUse…iT brings flAMES to my hEART to sEE yOU so hAPPY agAIN…”

 

Afi had always been a patient and loving father, but it usually took him a long time to bubble up the courage to say something like that… Grillby sighed and thought for a few seconds.

 

“…I promise… dad…”

Grillby looked solemnly at his dad- he thought he could manage that promise and he hoped that if Afi was happy he might re-ignite a bit. Afi did not re-ignite, although he glowed very bright red for a few seconds.

 

“…GoOD…” Afi leaned back in the chair.

 

Grillby frowned at his dad, and ignited some of his own courage.

 

“…Ok… my turn…Dad…are you doing ok…you…are barely igniting…?”

 

“…Well… I am oLD is ALL…thE hEALER sAYS I hAVE another decADE perHAPS…hAS me on a vERY strict diet of lOTS of SUNshine and lAVA cAKE…bUT OBviOUSly… I AM…slowing dOWN…”

 

Afi looked stuck his feet further into the fire. His legs started to shift a little more.

 

“…no…no…you are… strong as…as a solar flare…” Grillby grabbed his dad’s hand.

 

Afi Sighed,

 

“…FiAMETTA…hAS tOLD me I lOOK better…but yOUR mother had never been a gOOD liar…anD yOU tAKE after yOUR mOTHER…”

 

Grillby bowed his head.

 

“…dO nOT wORRY… about the little dULL pATCHES… my glOW and SHIFTING Magma…WILL cOME and GO…mY fATHER… dID the sAME thing…I wILL re-igNITE sOMEtime this week….stART shifting agAIn…mAYBE tomorrow…” Afi frowned, he wished his body would just...

 

 

“….jUST remEMBER tHE mORAL of the story…evEN after a sAD time…gOOD will COME again latER… and wELL… I stILL hAVE a fEW yEARS…”

 

 

“…Dad…I lava you… I just don’t want you to go…” Grillby hugged his father.

 

“…ah little GrILLbERT…I lAVa you too… yOU are aLL grown up…yOu can tAKE care of yOURSELF.. and YOU are in lOVE wiTH a niCE monster whO cAN hELp tAKE cARE of yOU…and gOING to hAVE lITTLE-” Magmus stopped himself. But Grillby gave him a smile,

 

“…I…probably shouldn’t tell you this…and it does… not mean it will happen anytime soon…” Grillby decided to throw his dad a bone. Afi leaned in…

 

“…but…we can have monsterlings…we checked…”

 

Afi reignited. Grillby knew he would regret that, but to see Afi happy with his lava shifting...

 

Grillby was upset, but he smiled for his dad, and the two had some fun at the campfire.

 

************************************************************

 

Sans looked at his phone. Holy Asgore.

 

ALPHYS, Coolskeleton95, Strongfish91, TipsyGal3, WoofWoof, and 11 more like your new underpic!

Coolskeleton95 is in a new underpic!

Coolskeleton95 is in a new underpic!

Coolskeleton95 is in a new underpic!

Coolskeleton95 is in a new underpic!

Coolskeleton95 is in a new underpic!

Coolskeleton95 is in a new underpic!

Coolskeleton95 is in a new underpic!

NEW TEXT FROM PAPS

Strongfish91 tagged you in a new underpic!

Coolskeleton95 is in a new underpic!

Coolskeleton95 is in a new underpic!

NEW TEXT FROM PAPS

NEW TEXT FROM PAPS

 

And then as he was reading…

 

NEW TEXT FROM PAPS

 

Holy Asgore in a Teashop! That is what he gets for leaving technology behind for a day.

 

Sans had a habit of going through updates one at a time.

 

First, everyone likes his new photo of Grillby on Diablo, and himself on Sleepy. Grillby had managed to pose without falling off the mule when Magmus took a picture.

 

 **“ooh, you two hons look supercute”** from Drunk Bun.

 

“ **Cousin, I thought you were scared of horses, glad to see you moving on.”** From FLAMESHEATSMEN. He wondered if Grillby was related to Heatsflamesman, too?

 

“ **YEAH, ride em cowboys!”** from Undyne.

 

After liking each status he moved to Papyrus’ first picture.

 

“ **Just treating myself to a nice dinner, not like I wanted to eat with anyone** **L** **”**

 

It was a picture of Papyrus in a fancy restaurant, with a big bowl of pasta trying to flex near it. Why was Paps at a restaurant by himself?

 

“ **hey Paps, call me if you want to chat!”** Alphys had commented.

 

He added his own:

 

“ **yo paps, want me to stop by?** ”

 

Sans decided to keep going.

 

The next pic was from today, and was surprising. Papyrus, a zombie lady, with long black hair, a skeleton lady in hoop earrings, and a mummy woman in a sparkle top all had their arms around him in Paps’ convertible #Traveling on a Highway. #New skele-friend

 

Their handles were PsychicZombie66, IamAppleC, and EuphratesMummy

 

“ **cool pic!”** Sans commented- short and sweet.  

 

Who were these mysterious new friends?

 

Next picture was Papyrus, who Sans presumed to be PsychicZombie66, AppleC, and Euphrates the Mummy in front of an exasperated looking Pretzel vendor. #Great Music with friends #FreePretzels #Love humans!

 

Sans just liked this one.

 

Next pic was Papyrus and the same three monsters getting their nails done…Sans smiled, Papyrus was always willing to go with his own style.

#JustSurfaceStyle

 

This pic had a lot of likes and comments.

 

“ **looking great!”** from HipZombie22

**“cute Zostra**!” from UndeadFred

 

“ **whose the cutie on the left?”** from MoaningZombie40. Sans noticed Papyrus was on the left.

 

“ **who is the skeleton next to Apple?”** from CurlztheSkelly

Sans added his own comment,

 

“ **cool style!** ”

The next picture was a selfie in front of some squirrel. #fearsomesurfacebeast #we’re not scared #squirrel

 

Papyrus had a mirrored image on his own blog.

 

Papyrus and the other three were posing in front of some squirrel doing a mating tail display…haha.

 

“ **OMA so cute.”** CurlztheSkelly

**“Oh, no it could eat you!”** HipZombie22

 

“ **LOL Paps, that’s pretty random** ” ALPHYS

 

“ **WHY is my daughter on the surface?”** MummyMommy2000

“ **Not as cute as my cat!** ” Sans missed Catsup.

 

The next picture was just Papyrus with a butterfly on his arm.

 

“ **UGHH sis, is this one of our cousins? Why didn’t you invite me to the surface?”** from CurlztheSkelly.

 

“ **Aww cute bird!** ” From UndeadFred

 

The next picture was at the beach, and was also from today… dang Papyrus had been everywhere today. The three were posing in the waves.

 

“ **Looks like fun Paps! Show those waves who’s boss!”** From Undyne

 

“ **OH wow you can swim?** ” from CurlztheSkelly

 

“ **Wow, the ocean looks amazing!** ” from HipZombie22

 

“ **NILE, You need to answer my phone calls immediately!”** from Mummy Mommy2000.

 

Sans felt bad for he guessed the Mummy girl Nile.

 

Next he looked at Papyrus’ text.

 

THIS MESSAGE IS PT 2 OF 2:

 

“-HEH HEH, HAPPY HONEYMOON!”

 

THIS MESSAGE IS PT 1 OF 2:

 

“HEY BROTHER! I MET SOME COOL NEW NECROTIC FRIENDS AT GRILLBY’S TODAY. WE ARE HAVING FUN AT THE BEACH, WHICH OF COURSE WE ARE, BECAUSE I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AM VERY COOL TO BE AROUND! I THINK I HAVE SOME CONFUSING FEELINGS FOR NILE THE MUMMY. SHE LIKES PUZZLES A LOT-SHE EVEN HAS A DEGREE IN PUZZLES! AND SHE HAS A PRETTY VOICE! AND HER, APPLE, AND ZOSTRA ALL LIKE HUMANS AND FUN. OH AND SHE LIKED THAT I TRAINED TO BE IN THE ROYAL GUARD, NYEH HEH HEH. OH ALSO ALPHYS MIS-UNDERSTOOD THE BURIAL DATING RITUAL. APPARENTLY THAT IS A WEDDING TRADITION, AND THE BONE SWAP THING IS THE DATING ONE…UM SO CONGRATULATIONS!!! I WILL SEND YOU A WEDDING PRESENT. SO NYEH-”

 

Ummm… wow. there was a lot to say to that.

 

“hey bro, can’t wait to hear about them! and i think grillbz might appreciate a real wedding…that doesn’t involve dirt.”

 

The next photo was from Undyne, and it was the three little monsterlings going for a stroll to the park with their mommies, awwww.

 

Sans liked it quickly to get back to his brother.

 

The next photo was of Papyrus and –who he assumed was actually Nile the Mummy, posing together, Papyrus was covered in seaweed to look like a green mummy.

 

“ **WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THAT YOUNG MAN? NILE PICK UP MY CALLS.** ” From Mummy Mommy2000.

 

The next picture was on Pap’s profile, and was him, Nile, Apple, and the Zombie all eating some picnic food as the sun set. Papyrus was making a sad face eating some sort of jerky.

 

“OH MY ASGORE. I MET NILE’S MUMMY… WELL SHE MET US AS THE SURFACE ENTRANCE…UM…I STOPPED HER FROM YELLING AT NILE. AND THEN STOPPED ABOUT THIRTY BONE ATTACKS AIMED AT MY HEAD WITH MY BLUE MAGIC- WHICH MADE HER ANGRIER… I THINK SHE DISLIKES ME A LOT, ONE MIGHT EVEN CALL IT HATRED”

 

“SO UM…AFTER THE BLUE MAGIC ONE OF HER MOM’S ATTACKS HIT MY ARM. NOT A BIG DEAL, DID NOT LOSE MORE THAN A QUARTER HP, OR EVEN CHIP IT. NILE WAS SUPER BRAVE! SHE GOT HER MOM TO STOP AND GAVE ME A BANDAGE…IT IS NOT AS GROSS AS WHEN FRISK DID IT…SHE TIED IT AROUND MY WRIST…SHE THINKS I WOULD BE A GOOD MUMMY... HER MOM STOPPED AFTER NILE PUT THE BANDAGE ON ME AND SAID SOMETHING ABOUT ‘NOT WANTING HER DAUGHTER TO GET CLOSE TO A NOBODY MAGIC SKELETON’. I NEED TO MAKE A BETTER IMPRESSION, THE GUIDEBOOK SAYS THAT FAMILY IMPRESSIONS ARE IMPORTANT”

 

Sans couldn’t help but worry a bit about what Paps was getting into, this lady sounded awful. Also, he hoped that the mummy bandage didn’t mean Paps was married, too.

 

“ERR…NOT THAT I WOULD NEED THE DATING GUIDEBOOK FOR ANY REASON.”

 

Sans sighed, Paps definitely had a thing for her.

 

“NILE TEXTED ME AFTER SHE LEFT THAT SHE IS OK, AND WANTS TO HANG OUT AGAIN! BUT HER MOM MIGHT NOT LET HER LEAVE WITHOUT SNEAKING OUT. BUT, UM, SHE WANTS TO STOP BY GRILLBY’S TOMORROW TO HANG OUT FOR KARAOKE… BUT MORE SECRETLY, AND LESS ON SOCIAL MEDIA. NYEH HEH HEH.”

 

Sans decided it was hi-time he gave Papyrus a call. The phone rang, and Papyrus immediately picked up,

 

“HEY SANS!”

 

“uh hey bro. seems like you had a busy day?”

 

“YES, IT WAS WONDERFUL TO MAKE SOME NEW FRIENDS! WE WENT TO THE MALL, THE PARK, AND THE BEACH, AND THEY WANT TO HANG OUT MORE SO I THINK IT WENT WELL.”

 

“what about being attacked by a mummy mommy?”

 

“OH , WELL YEAH…THAT WAS NOT FUN…BUT NILE REALLY STOOD UP FOR HERSELF! AND SHE LOOKED IMPRESSED WHEN I STOPPED HER MOM’S BONE ATTACKS. AND THEN SHE STOOD UP FOR ME. SHE HAS DIFFERENT MAGIC! SHE HAS SAND BASED POWERS, SO HER MOM WAS REALLY UPSET SHE WENT TO THE BEACH, SINCE THEY DO NOT REALLY LIKE MAGIC EXCEPT SIMPLE BONE ATTACKS AND BEING NEAR SAND RE-CHARGES HER MAGIC.”

 

Sans hated feeling magic drained, you had so little energy and felt lethargic...

 

“wait, bro, do you mean that mean that they kept her magic drained…for years?”

 

“UM…YEAH… ACTUALLY. THEY DID. THEY ALSO DO NOT NORMALLY LET HER LEAVE THE HOUSE.” Papyrus sounded really upset.

 

“but she’s an adult right, so can they really stop her? will she be ok seeing you again?”

 

“UM…SHE SAID SHE THINKS SHE CAN CONVINCE THEM! I HOPE SHE CAN. I-I THINK I MIGHT LIKE NILE, BUT WHAT IF SHE DOESN’T LIKE ME?”

 

“sounds like you are _in-de-nile_. i bet the bandage thing is like the bone-swap thing. You should give her a bandage or something back, um if you like her.”

 

“OH MY GOODNESS…I DIDN’T GIVE HER A PRESENT BACK… I NEED TO GET HER SOMETHING RIGHT NOW! SANS WHAT SHOULD I GET HER?”

 

“uh… well since you don’t have bandages, how about something like a bandage she might like?”

 

“SOMETHING LIKE A BANDAGE, HUH. DO YOU THINK SHE’D LIKE A SCARF? I COULD GIVE HER MY RED SCARF? ALTHOUGH, MAYBE I COULD GET HER SOMETHING EVEN BETTER.”

 

Papyrus thought about it. The scarf was a bit tattered and currently smelled like seaweed and ocean…

 

“i bet she’d like anything you got her bro.”

 

Papyrus remembered something he saw at the mall earlier, something that would look good on Nile.

 

“OK, BROTHER IT WAS NICE TALKING TO YOU, BUT I NEED TO GO TO THE MALL AGAIN BEFORE IT CLOSES, HAVE FUN ON YOUR HONEYMOON!”

 

“can we please not actually count that as a wedding?”

 

“NOT A PROBLEM! BUT I MIGHT _RIB_ YOU ABOUT IT NYEH HEH HEH.”

 

“cya bro, try not to accidentally get married, yourself.”

 

Papyrus got off the phone and ran to the car, startling a sleeping Catsup. He had seen the perfect thing at the mall.

 

*************************************************************************

 

Grillby and Afi were also playing a game of magical fire checkers, and munching on smores. Afi went to go grab another bag of marshmellows.

 

“so, grillby…about that burial ceremony.”

 

“…what about that ceremony….” Grillby was still having nightmares about dust.

 

“um. apparently its supposed to be for weddings. so according to skeleton tradition we are hitched...um.”

 

“…Oh wow…” Grillby hoped Sans didn't want to take it seriously.

 

“don’t worry, we can um, just ignore it, paps just might make fun of us.”

 

“…sure thing…husband…” Grillby poked Sans not-nose.

 

“…wHAT WAS ThAt…?” Afi came back with three more marshmallow bags...

 

The group laughed a bit, and they had some fun tossing marshmallows into Afi's mouth. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for reading! I am glad people seem to like Nile. Papyrus seems pretty not discouraged by 30 bone attacks to the face...but well he has always been a positive thinker.


	32. In which a critical outfit decision is made

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grillby and Sans have some fun, and Papyrus preps for a bid ?date? with Nile

After a fun early morning that involved a few vultures circling Sans when he tried to sit near the river, the group headed back up the Canyon, trying to get in as many sights as they could before leaving the trail.

 

Sans, Grillby, Afi, Magmus, and Fiametta had enjoyed the Grand Canyon, but were happy to move on with their adventure. The group gave one last treat to each of the mules, and got back in the car for a few hours drive. Before taking off Fiametta went over their next destination.

 

This was Fiametta’s pick: Antelope Canyon. She was aiming for a tour for 12:00 noon to do into the Lower part.

 

“…So before we go to this next part… we are entering…the Navajo Nation, or as the people call themselves the Diné…. Technically… despite being under Asgore…we are members of the other human country…. Well really either way we are guests… and should respect their laws…which are mostly the same…obviously do not trespass or cause a nuisance…but no alcohol is allowed…even via transport…”

The entire car turned to look at Grillby.

Sans had noticed everyone had a different snack to keep their magic up. Fiametta enjoyed olive oil, Afi liked woodchips, and Magmus munched on charcoal like potato chips…and all four would sometimes ask for a portable tank of gasoline at fuel stations, much to the amusement and concern of whoever ran the station. For once Sans’ ketchup wasn’t the weirdest magic fuel… but of course, Grillby’s fuel was alcohol.

 

Grillby had a few less pockets than he did in his bartending uniform but still managed to remove six hip-flasks stored on his person-and another four from his suitcase.

 

“…anyone want any…?”

 

It was a little early for Sans to have a drink, and he noticed Grillby pointedly did not offer… but Fiametta, Magmus, and Afi, helped by pouring two flasks each flask into their flames/ lava, to refill their magic levels.

 

Fiametta’s flame turned white for a second.

 

“…son…what is in this…?”

 

“…ahh… I am glad you asked… for the trip…I made my own special mix of Spirytus Delikatesowy…a Polish drink…that is inexpensive and 192 Proof…”

 

Sans let out a whistle.

 

“…Which I mixed with walnuts and a lot of sugar…”

 

“grillbz, how do you not get drunk off of that?” Sans thought that was ridiculous.

 

Afi, Fiametta, and Magmus laughed.

 

“um, sorry for the dumb question?” Sans looked down.

 

“…Oh come on everyone…” Grillby frowned.

 

“…Sans…it’s not the question…” Fiametta laughed a bit.

 

“…BUT lITTLE GrillbERT…iS KIND of a LIGHTweight…” Magmus poked Grillby.

 

“…Well…I mean….perhaps he inherited it from me…I can have…twenty five…which I suppose is a bit low…considering you can do a keg…my poor little flameling… I have cursed you with my low fuel intake…” Fiametta sighed.

 

“…There thERe…. lOVE… it can’t be entirely your fault…he can’t handle twenty-five…” Afi jokingly consoled his wife.

 

Grillby sighed,

 

“…well, I asked a doctor why recently…”

 

Afi, Fiametta, and Magmus stopped their giggling, while Grillby gave them a pointed glare.

 

“…ahem… being a mix of… lava…and fire…somehow… means my heat is not… concentrated in my head…”

 

“…where…IS IT THEn…?” Magmus asked. Grillby ignored the question,

 

“…So… I burn off slightly less of the alcohol… than you three hotheads…or in fact…most of the rest of the family…”

 

Oh, it made sense now…Fiametta nodded.

 

“…This is actually… good being a cook…because I can taste more of the food… than you can…but it also means…I get drunk after…a good fifteen drinks… because more of the alcohol hits my core without burning…”

 

“wait, fifteen? but-I’ve seen you slightly, uh-”

 

Sans looked at Fiametta,

 

“-tipsy before.”

 

Grillby handed the last two flasks to Afi and Fiametta.

 

“…Well, I am like Bunny… but with a much higher limit… it keeps my magic up…which I need to cook…. So I go through…ten of these… every day… and then if I have a few extras….”

 

“…cOULDn’T yOU jUST pOUR the ALCOHOL into…the AREA yOUR hEAT is mOST concentrated…?” Magmus was not going to let the idea go.

 

Grillby sighed,

 

“…I do not… run that type of bar… brother”

 

“..wAIT…” Magmus’ face actually stopped bubbling for a second.

 

Finally, Grillby had a turn to burst out laughing with Afi and Fiametta.

 

*******************************************************************************

“…So we climb…down a ladder, and we can take pictures of the magnificent slot canyon… I have seen some really beautiful pictures…of sun hitting the rocks…” Fiametta’s flame flickered even more quickly than usual.

 

The group parked and paid the parking fee…and were in fact on time for the 12:00 tour… they walked down the smooth layered brown hill… the striated layers were so thin…. and came to a giant spiral metal staircase that led into a twisted opening into the canyon… the many tiny muddy steps did not leave a lot of room…so they entered single file.

 

“…sO…after lEAVing undergROUND… we ARE visiting…a tINY cAVE?...” Magmus was not looking forward to the squeeze down the stairs.

 

Sans, and Grillby, went first, Sans practically gliding down the steps…every new angle was beautiful, and he stopped frequently to take some breathtaking pictures. Grillby followed, less nimbly. He was suddenly grateful that the mules had existed for going into the last canyon…the winding nature of the stairs meant he slipped a few times, but Sans, grabbed his hand, and helped him stay up.

 

Magmus trudged down the stairs afterwards, he was a bit less fit than Grillby. Years of smoking, drinking, and a bachelor lifestyle had not done him well.

 

Fiametta did well, and steadied Afi as they walked down the steps slowly. Grillby was happy to see he was pulsing red with color.

 

Once at the bottom, the group got off the steps, to be met with a smooth twisted sandstone wall. Only two tiny lights of sun shined through holes in the orange caverns,the brown and orange striated walls reflected light and shadow.

 

Immediately they had to squeeze through a small crevice between two smooth walls, that seemed more like puzzle pieces than a cave.

 

They walked through the passage, and as they went deeper the light hit the walls to be more peach and pink, with the sky peaking through above.

 

Grillby pointed up at the sky,

 

“…Sans…it looks…like a river…” The bright blue sky against the smooth walls winded above them.

 

“That is _cirrusly_ your kind of river, grillby.”

 

“…well… _sky.._ might enjoy that…” Grillby imagined swimming through clouds

 

The group wandered through, they quietly enjoyed the journey. Eventually, they emerged out of the canyon, literally popping out of the crevasse and onto the striated ground once more. Afi got a bit stuck for a few seconds. He looked down, he concentrated, and went into a magma form.

 

Fiametta looked overjoyed, she had had the time of her life. Afi smiled at her.

 

***********************************************************************

 

Grillby was surprised when Magmus stated that they were just driving through monument valley, how would they even see the boring statues?

 

Magmus chuckled.

 

“…aHH hAH HAH…lITTLE brOTHER…you will undERSTAND…. When yOU see it…as mOTHER mentioned…the MONUMENT VALLey is in the Navajo nation…whose name for the AREa is Tsé Biiʼ Ndzisgaii, mEANING vALLEY of the rOCKS…ideally we wOULD tAkE a tOUR to lEARN more…but we dO NOT hAVE tIME… it will ALREADY tAKE three hOURS…”

 

They paid an entrance fee.

 

“Be sure to drive slowly, the 17 mile stretch is a dirt road, and to remember that the park closes in a few hours, so do not stay out too late.”

 

“…Oh… do not worry…I always follow the speed limit…” Grillby was sure if he drove carefully he would be fine.

 

Grillby drove through the rocky descent from the visitors center…trying to go slowly through the descent that switched back and forth with lots of bumps and with the brown red dust flying past the car. He seemed to be doing well, until the car got stuck for a second in a small ditch- the low lying Honda civic really wasn’t meant for this.

 

Grillby backed up and pushed the gas and just got over it.

 

The car vibrated and bumped, even though the elemental was only going 5 MPH, Sans bones were rattling with the car, and Afi and Magmus started bubbling up with many tiny bubbles rocketing towards the top of their heads like a fast paced lava lamp. Magmus went into a more solid form, which looked even more uncomfortable.

 

“…Sooo…ooo…ooo…dii..iidd…yoo..ooou…know…that the... eee …buuuttteess …aree… made… off three lay….. errrrrs…?” Fiametta tried to read off the guide she had printed…

 

Already, at the entrance, they were seeing the Merrick, and East and West Mitten Buttes.

 

Fiametta decided there was no way she was reading these facts in the bumpy car and paused while Grillby parked.

 

Sans, Magmus, and Fiametta jumped out of the car, and Afi took a breather.

 

 

“…The sediment layers… from bottom to top are Organ Rock Shale… de Chelly Sandstone, and Moenkopi Formation, capped with Shinarump Conglomerate…” Fiametta finished, looked shaken up.

 

 

Grillby looked at the car, it was holding up fine, but the whole family did not seem to be enjoying the ride and they had only gone a mile in.

 

“…So Magmus…how scenic are the rest of these scenic seventeen miles…?”

 

Magmus turned to Grillby, looking a bit sad, before he could respond Sans piped up.

 

“um, hey grillbz, it might drain me a bit, but you know i could make the ride a little less bumpy”

 

The entire family looked at Sans.

 

“…Will it be a problem to use gravity magic that long? …”

 

“it’s no trouble, but i should get a bit more visibility, and someone else should take pictures. and i might get a little drained after an hour.”

 

Fiametta happily moved into the backseat with Afi, leaning into him, he was like a big billowy pillow at the moment, which allowed Magmus to feel more comfortable and spread out a bit. Sans relaxed, and concentrated on lifting the car a few inches off the soil.

 

“ok, grillbz, i'm gonna let you control the gas and brakes, just let me keep the vehicle off the ground.”

 

“…have you done this before….?”

 

“yes” Sans had done it a few times when Papyrus was training for his license- although not for three hours.

 

 

The magical method worked like a charm, Grillby kept to the speed limit, and they continued on to Elephant Butte, which disappointingly to Grillby, did not look like an elephant by any stretch of the imagination- at least Asgore had accuracy. Grillby noticed the other cars were looking at his glide through the road, while they all bumped up and down…

 

On the other side of the road, they passed the Three Sisters, pinnacle formation and then stopped at the famous John Ford’s Point to take lots of photos, Afi stayed in the car, though.

 

The passed Camel Butte (which did not look like a camel), and glided down into Tse Biyi Valley, whose beautiful green shrubbery contrasted with the red earth. They drove for quite some time.

 

“…We..Are…cURRENtly in a valley between rAIN GOD Mesa and THUNDerbird MESA…” Magmus was very excited.

 

The area opened to a formation called The Hub, is a spire towering 150 feet high, with small homes at its base. The ground became extremely sandy, with large dunes rising nearby. They pulled to the famous red sandstone column, Totem Pole, and the Yei Bi Chei spires.

 

A little further on Sans had to ask Grillby to pull over for a second near a big boulder than seemed to be balanced near a little pull away zone. He swigged a whole bottle of ketchup, and a bottle of water. The head of the desert, and of the family had cooked a lot of his supplies, so it was more of a tomato paste... bleh.

 

They kept driving, until the family reached Artist’s Point.

 

“…WOW… I wOULD lOVE to pAINT this…sOMEDAY…” Magmus pulled over to the old rusted railing, and borrowed the camera to take a bunch of pictures. At this point, the sun was starting to set and low puffy cumulus clouds were floating across the sky, colored pink and gold.

 

“…Unfortunately…the park closes soon…so we need to keep driving…” Grillby looked disappointed.

 

“…cAN…wE…just wait a little…I jUST need a minute…” Magmus was really lost in the scene.

 

“…Well…Ok…it is pretty…” Grillby decided to try to forgo his Type A personality for a minute and let the time pass.

 

No one really wanted to leave. They stayed another amazing ten minutes watching the start of the sunset, before reluctantly coming back into the car.

 

On their way out, they simply admired driving by the Thumb, which really did look like one! Finally, Grillby was happy at human naming conventions! The family relaxed, watching the park coated in the sunset colors.

 

It was coming to closing time and it would take Grillby another twenty minutes to get to the entrance. He started to drive a little faster, and Sans decided to just not mention it.

 

They drove peacefully –

 

“AHHH!!...”

 

Grillby was startled as several dusty wild horses, brown with little white spots, walked across the road. One looked like a foal. Magmus managed a quick picture!

 

They pulled over for a minute to let the animals cross.

 

“…look at the cute little colt…he is glued to his mother…” Fiametta smiled.

 

Grillby was starting to be less scared of equines after the mule ride, but did not appreciate the horses making them even later exiting the park.

 

But as the elemental drove, he noticed they weren’t the last ones in the park and that many visitors seemed to be ending their tours a few minutes late.

 

“…Huh…ok…I suppose we wont be arrested…” They pulled out of the gate, and sighed as no human guards jumped out to kick them out.

 

The family headed back onto the highway for sunset and to a Motel for the night. Afi was let out a puff of smoke from his mouth and sighed.

 

************************************************************************************

 

 

Papyrus was getting ready to see Nile again. He finished his shift at Grillby’s and then sped off to the house. What would he wear? Yesterday he had just been in a work uniform/ bathing suit all day. She had been dressed pretty nicely... in a cool sparkly top. What would impress her? Did he really want to impress her?

 

Papyrus thought honestly for a second.

 

Yes. Yes, he did. Ok, so he knew she liked sparkles, and green. He didn’t have anything green, but…

 

He had two sparkly crop tops. He needed fashion advice from a friend, and who was a better friend than Undyne? He hoped she would pick up today.

 

_Ring Ring_

“Uh, hey Papyrus, what’s up?” Undyne sounded tired, but happy to get a call. A monsterling cried in the background, and from the biting sounds it sounded like Nariko was biting inedible objects again.

 

“NYEH, HEH, SORRY TO BUG YOU UNDYNE! UM… THERE IS A VERY SPECIAL…UM FRIEND I AM GOING TO MEET. THEY LIKE SPARKLES! SHOULD I GO WITH THE SILVER SEQUIN TANK CROP TOP COMBO, OR THE BLACK STRETCH TANK TOP WITH THE WORD SPARKLES IN PINK GLITTER?”

 

Undyne thought for a moment.

 

“Well, I always like to show off my muscles, so what does that more?”

 

“UM, UNDYNE...”

 

“RIGHT! Right, you are a skeleton. Well, what’s the occasion?”

 

“WELL WE ARE GOING TO GRILLBY’S FOR KARAOKE AND DINNER. MAYBE HANG OUT A BIT. SHE’S FROM UNDERGROUND, SO I WANT HER TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE SURFACE.”

 

“SHE? OH RIGHT HENRY DID NOT WORK OU-”

 

“AHEM”

 

“RIGHT RIGHT SORRY PAPS. I promised I would not bring Henry up- but you must be over that sad-sack if you already found another monster to…uhm…be friends with.”

 

Undyne was pretty sure Papyrus had the hots for whoever this was, but figured it would be rude to say so.

 

 

“SO she’s from Underground. What type of monster is she?”

 

“WELL, SHE IS A LITTLE SHY, BUT SUPER FASHIONABLE! AND SHE LOVES PUZZLES SO MUCH SHE HAS A DEGREE IN THEM. I HAVE TO SAY HER TASTE IN FOOD IS AWFUL THOUGH…”

 

“Uh, That’s not what I meant Paps-OW!- Listen, Grandmas and Grandpa Fish are taking the some of the tykes swimming tonight… Can Nariko and I come by for a bit on our way Underground? Nariko really isn’t ready for swimming, her arms are a bit short. Alphys parents haven’t moved up yet, so I was going to go Underground so she can catch up with them a bit.”

 

“SURE THING! IT WOULD BE GOOD TO SEE YOU AND NARIKO! AND I CAN GIVE YOU A RIDE TO THE UNDERGROUND IF YOU WANT, I AM PICKING UP NILE THERE-”

 

Papyrus was interrupted by a pained sounding Undyne.

 

“-OW! NO SPEARS! Yes please! We’ve missed you, Paps! –OW!- Nariko! Uncle Paps is gonna see you, aren’t you excited- OW! OK yes, you are very excited! Papyrus, I gotta go, See you later nerd!” Undyne hung up after getting a fifth tiny yellow spear to the hand.

 

Half an hour later, Papyrus’ phone buzzed.

 

It was a text from Nile! Papyrus smiled and opened it, stars in his eyes.

 

**_HEY, PY! CAN YOU PICK ME UP AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE UNDERGROUND? I THINK I CAN ESCAPE THERE IN ABOUT FORTY MINUTES._ **

****

Oh man… what a cool nickname. Monsters usually shortened his name to Paps, or Papy, but he decided Py was a good one. He wondered if he could give her a nickname, too. Nile was already one syllable? Niles? Does it even count as a Nickname if it longer than the original?

 

Papyrus played with the bandage Nile had given him. He re-tied the bow so it looked super neat.

*****************************

Undyne and Nariko came by a few minutes later by taxi.

 

Nariko excitedly ran up to Papyrus and jumped at him, managing to bite his arm...always in the same spot, OW! Right where the bone attack had hit him yesterday...he was going to get permanent dent marks if this kept up.

 

“GOOD TO SEE YOU LITTLE MONSTERLING!” Papyrus had babysat the monsterlings a few times since the hatching, they did not quite understand complex storytelling or puzzles yet, but Undyne was impressed at how quickly he got them to sleep, oh well. He was happy to see his Soul child and spoil them a bit.

 

“What’s with the bandage?” Undyne looked concerned that instead of wrapping the bite, Papyrus was busy using said bandage as a decorative device around his arm.

 

“UM, WELL MY FRIENDS’ MOTHER DOES NOT REALLY LIKE ME.”

 

Papyrus told Undyne the story of Nile’s Mummy while Nariko pet Catsup.

 

“AND THEN SHE PULLED IT OFF HER ARM...IT WAS REALLY SPECIAL.”

 

Papyrus gazed lovingly at the white dusty bandage… Undyne raised an eyebrow. Not only was Papyrus not grossed out by wearing a dusty bandage, he seemed to be non deterred by being hit with some Monster's attack.

“So let me get this straight...You are trying to go on a date-”

 

“IM NOT SURE IF IT’S A ROMANTIC DATE OR A FRIENDSHIP DATE!”

 

“-Go on a date, with this Mummy chick, whose mom prevented her from using magic for twenty something years and whose first reaction to find out you interacted with her daughter was to attack you, and now said Mummy chick is sneaking out of her house to meet you, and we are going to meet her at the Underground Entrance…so you can sing karaoke together?”

 

“YES, YES, BUT WHAT SHIRT LOOKS BETTER? WE NEED TO GET GOING?”

 

“Paps, I am being serious! That situation does not exactly scream ‘only good things can come from this’!”

 

“UNDYNE, ONCE YOU MEET NILE YOU’LL UNDERSTAND. SHE IS JUST SO, WELL… I THINK I MIGHT HAVE FEELINGS THAT ARE HARD TO DESCRIBE FOR HER…COMPLICATED FEELINGS ABOUT MEETING A FELLOW PUZZLE LOVING NECROTIC MONSTER WITH A PASSION FOR FASHION...REALLY PRETTY LONG LE-UM I MEAN. SHE UM… SHE IS A GOOD MONSTER WHO NEEDS A _FRIEND._  MAYBE MORE THAN A FRIEND…”

 

“Well, she does sound like she needs a friend if her mom is that protective of her and I hope it works out for you, think of all the AWESOME double dates we could go on! WE COULD EVEN GO ON A TRIPLE DATE, if we can get your lazy brother and that workaholic Grillby to tag along!”

 

“OH WOWIE, A TRIPLE DATE!”

 

Papyrus’ eyes turned to little stars just thinking about it.

 

“YES, YOU HAVE TO MEET HER AND THE OTHER TWO, SOMETIME. BUT ZOSTRA AND APPLE ARE BUSY TONIGHT. THEY INSISTED JUST ME AND NILE HANG OUT. ANYWAY, I WANT YOU GUYS TO GET ALONG, YOU ARE MY BEST FRIEND UNDYNE!”

 

Papyrus held up the two shirts and wiggling them in front of Undyne, so she could to decide.

 

“Aww, well Paps, don’t worry, I’ll giver her a chance, if your this worked up, right? And uh, the black shirt with pink lettering suits you more.”

 

Undyne was excited to meet Nile. But so help her Asgore, if this Mummy broke Paps little innocent heart.

 

“THANKS ALPHYS!” Papyrus ran off to switch shirts, and came back ready to go.

 

“No basketball pauldrons?” Undyne was surprised.

 

“UM, NOT THIS TIME. MTT BASKETBALLS WERE LAST SEASON, AND THIS SEASON’S BASEBALLS DO NOT FIT. BESIDES SHE ALREADY SAW MY SHOULDERS WITHOUT THEM,”

 

Papyrus supposed it was best to be honest anyway, this was serious.

 

Undyne smiled a little too much, and Papyrus decided to clarify.

 

“WHILE WE WERE SWIMMING”

 

“Right there tiger! I saw the pictures on Undernet after all.”

 

“WELL LET’S GET GOING. ARRIVING ON TIME IS IMPORTANT.”

 

************************************************

 

Papyrus’ phone buzzed a minute away from the surface entrance.

 

“OH NO WHAT IF SHE GOT THERE EARLY! SHE COULD LEAVE IN DISAPOINTMENT.”

 

“Don’t worry Paps, want me to read it for you, while you drive?

 

“YES PLEASE!”

 

 **_HEY PY, I AM SORRY I WILL BE LATE, MUM CAUGHT ME, AND MADE ME CHANGE OUTFITS… BUT SHE IS OK WITH ME SEEING YOU NOW…ALTHOUGH I THINK I LOOK AWFUL. I AM GOING TO BE AT LEAST FIFTEEN MINUTES LATE… IF YOU WANT TO CANCEL I UNDERSTAND :(_ ** **_”_ **

****

“Her mom made her do what?” Undyne glared at Papyrus’ phone.

 

Undyne turned to Papyrus, who to Undyne’s surprise had his eye glowing orange.

 

The skeleton pulled up to the Underground entrance, and immediately texted Nile back that he had no problem waiting… but it said the message failed to deliver. The wireless signal was pretty bad on the path between the two places.

 

*************************************************************

After half an hour of waiting (During which, Nariko got three horsey rides from Uncle Papyrus, and Undyne took a well-deserved nap) a masked figure exited the Underground, stumbling a bit, but seemingly determined to walk as quickly as possible.

 

Walking fast seemed to be difficult because they were wearing a black and golden cat mask that partially covered their eyes, a long white robe that was too big for them and caused them to trip, and finally because they were covered in dusty white powder that made them slip further.

 

_“PAPYRUS! YOU WAITED!”_

“NILE! OF COURSE I WAITED! I AM GLAD YOU GOT OUT OF THERE! I AM SORRY MY TEXTS WOULD NOT DELIVER.”

 

_“YES, MY MUM WAS CONCERNED MY LAST OUTFIT WAS TOO…FLASHY. UM, WELL, HOPE I LOOK ALRIGHT. ALTHOUGH I THINK THIS OUTFIT HAS NOT BEEN IN FASHION FOR 6000 YEARS…”_

“OH, WELL, MAYBE IT IS RETRO, BUT YOU LOOK PRETTY!” Papyrus thought Nile still looked beautiful…if encumbered.

 

Papyrus thought Nile might be blushing, but it was hard to tell with the mask and the powdery stuff. Undyne gave Papyrus a stealthy thumbs up.

 

_“OH, HEH, JUST SOME OLD TRADITIONAL BURIAL ATTIRE I SUPPOSE? MOM INSISTED ON THE GOWN, AND THEN CAKED ON THE NATRON POWDER.”_

Nile tried to rub the powder off, she got some, but it was pretty coated on.

_“MOM WAS GOING TO HAVE ME WEAR A FUNEARY MASK WITH A CHEST PIECE…BUT I CONVINCED HER THE CAT MASK WAS FINE-SINCE I LIKE TO EAT. AFTER I TOLD HER IT WAS TO UM...HANG OUT WITH YOU- WELL, I WILL TELL YOU LATER. IS THIS YOUR LOVELY MER-FRIEND AND A CUTE LITTLE MONSTERLING!”_

 

Papyrus turned to Undyne, who miraculously managed not to pop a blood vessel after being called lovely and was trying her best to smile in a friendly manner,

 

“YES, THIS IS UNDYNE AND HER DAUGHTER NARIKO, UNDYNE IS CAPTAIN OF THE ROYAL GUARD, AND SHE WAS TRAINING ME TO BECOME A GUARDSMAN!”

 

Undyne flexed and smiled,

 

“Nice to meet you Nile. Want to say hi Nariko?”

 

To Undyne’s frustration, Nariko immediately leapt onto Nile trying to chomp her arm-

 

 

“ _OH WOW YOU ARE A CUTIE!”_

Papyrus watched in admiration as Nile caught Nariko and switched her tackle to a hug with ease,

 

_“UH, SORRY, MAY I PICK HER UP? I DO A LOT OF BABYSITTING, SO I AM USED TO BEING WITH MONSTERLINGS.”_

“Not a problem!” Undyne watched in amazement as Nariko gently nuzzled Nile-getting white powder on her nose, sneezing, and then hopping back down to chomp on Papyrus.

 

Papyrus tried to copy the move, to no avail.

 

“How do you do that?”

 

“ _I JUST TRY TO RELAX, YOU KNOW, BE CALM.”_

Undyne tried her hardest to radiate a sense of calm, but she would have more luck catching wind in her hands. Maybe Alphys could do it.

 

“Nile, I know we just met, but if you ever want a babysitting gig, just let me know.”

 

Undyne smiled at Nile,

 

“Although to fairly warn you, this is only part one of three”

 

Undyne smiled and gently picked up her little angel.

_“THANK YOU CAPTAIN UNDYNE! IT WOULD BE AN HONOR TO BABYSIT.”_ Nile curtsied.

 

Undyne wondered if all necrotic monsters were this formal- No… no Sans was living non-breathing proof that was not true.

 

“Anyway, I hope you two have some fun tonight! Nile, I hope to see you again soon! Me and the tyke are gonna go visit grandma and grandpa now!”

 

 

Nariko gave Papyrus one last playful chomp, and the mother and child walked into the Underground.

 

*******************************

 

 


	33. The Mummy Returns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ok, ok...so things heat up a bit with Papyrus and Nile this chapter... but just as things are looking great...Nile's mother finds a way to ruin the fun.
> 
> And one of the best NPCs comesss back!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey this chapter has some sexy stuff in it... I re-wrote this three times...
> 
> I admit their relationship escalates rather quickly...but well... I kind of like it like that, since not every relationship is as much of a slowburn as Sans and Grillby...
> 
> I really like Papyrus and Nile... PyNi? I don't know. I swear I am worse than Asgore with names...
> 
> For everyone that likes Papyrus with Mettaton... I do too! But I have some reasons for this relationship that I think will be fun.

As Undyne faded into the tunnel, Nile was alone with Papyrus, she felt pretty awful. She had been so late to see him, and she felt like a hot mess. Still-she could salvage this date!

 

Was it a date? She wanted it to be a date.

 

“ _HEY PY…ERR…IS PY OK? DO YOU PREFER PAPS?”_

“ANYTHING IS FINE. MAYBE NOT RUS. NYEH HEH. UNLESS YOU THINK I AM A RUS. I WOULD BE OK WITH IT IF YOU LIKED IT! NYEH HEH...I MEAN, UH DO YOU HAVE ANY NICKNAMES?”

 

Nile thought for a second.

 

“ _NILE IS A BIT DIFFICULT TO SHORTEN,MAYBE NI?”_

Frankly he could call her anything and she’d be happy.

“NYEH HEH HEH, WELL NI, DID THINGS WORK OUT OK LAST NIGHT, ARE YOU OK?”

 

_“UMM… WELL MY MOTHER LECTURED ME ON THE DANGERS OF GOING TO THE BEACH, USING MAGIC, AND TALKING WITH STRANGE MEN. AND SHE KIND OF…SORT OF…MAY HAVE TAKEN THE SHELL YOU GAVE ME AWAY. SINCE IT IS MADE OF SAND AND CAN REFILL MY MAGIC.”_

 

“WHAT!”

 

_“BUT I CONVINCED HER TO LET ME COME TO THE SURFACE! ON THE CONDITION THAT I WEAR THIS MASK, UH, WHICH SHE PUT A MUMMY’S CURSE ON.”_

“YOUR MOTHER PUT A CURSE ON YOU?”

 

_“WELL, IT TECHNICALLY IS JUST ON ANYONE WHO REMOVES THE MASK. IT IS PRETTY NORMAL FOR MUMMIES, HONESTLY. ALTHOUGH, THE CURSE SHE USED IS CURRENTLY CONSIDERED A BIT EXTREME BY MOST.”_

“UM, WHY DOES YOUR MOTHER WANT YOU TO HAVE A MASK STUCK TO YOUR HEAD?”

 

“ _WELL,THERE ARE A FEW REASONS, BUT MAINLY SO I CANNOT USE MAGIC.”_

“NI, UM...THAT IS REALLY AWFUL! HOW COULD SOMEONE DO THAT TO YOU?” Papyrus’ eyes glowed orange.

 

 _“UM…LOTS OF PARENTS ARE PROTECTIVE OF THEIR KIDS. LET’S FORGET ABOUT IT!”_ Nile tried to take a step forward, and tripped again.

“THAT IS NOT A NORMAL LEVEL OF SAFETY OR PRECAUTION! AND SHE MADE IT SO YOU CANNOT EVEN WALK! DOES SHE REALLY CARE ABOUT YOUR SAFETY?”

 

Papyrus felt his hand go into a fist. how could someone do something like that to their kid?

 

 _“I...I KNOW. YOU PROBABLY THINK...I…UGH…MY FAMILY HAS ISSUES….I…I DO NOT KNOW IF …I KNOW I LOOK LIKE A FOOL.”_ Nile started to sway a bit…

 

Papyrus was about to say something else, when he looked more closely at Nile, she looked like she was on the verge of a breakdown.

 

He realized she had not gotten his text so she had stumbled through the tunnel, probably magic drained, and not even knowing if he would be there. Well now he felt like a jerk.

 

She probably wanted to forget about her home life for a bit, they could always talk about that another time.

 

Papyrus knelt down, and grabbed Nile’s hand to steady her a bit.

 

“NILE! I AM SORRY, DO NOT BE UPSET! I JUST UM- I DID NOT HAVE A UM PARENT, SO I JUST DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT IT IS LIKE.”

 

Papyrus took a deep breath,

 

“AND I MEANT IT EARLIER, I THINK YOU LOOK BEAUTIFUL!  NI, I AM JUST HAPPY TO SEE YOU AGAIN, AND WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A GREAT TIME!

 

Ni looked at Papyrus and let out a breath herself, she did not know why she was getting so worked up. Ok, that was a lie. She just wanted Papyrus to like her and not to worry about her dumb family.

 

_“OH, IT IS OK PY, MY PARENTS REALLY ARE RIDICULOUS. IT JUST HURTS TO HEAR OUT LOUD… AND UM, I WAS HOPING THAT THE START OF OUR…HANGOUT COULD GO A LITTLE MORE SMOOTHLY. JUST FEEL SO UNCOMFORTABLE LIKE THIS, AND I KNOW I LOOK LIKE I AM FROM THE 1 st CENTURY”_

“WELL, IF YOU ARE UNCOMFORTABLE, WE CAN STOP AT MY HOUSE FIRST! I THINK WE CAN AT LEAST WASH THE POWDER OFF IF YOU WOULD LIKE?”

 

_“I CANNOT BEGIN TO TELL YOU HOW MUCH I WOULD LIKE THAT!”_

Nile smiled and Papyrus’ soul fluttered.

 

They got in the car, and Papyrus popped in an old i-POD.

 

“WANNA PRACTICE FOR KARAOKE? I BET WE ARE GOING TO DO GREAT! BUT PRACTICE NEVER HURTS!”

 

Nile smiled,

 

_“OK”_

 

“PICK YOUR FAVORITE!”

 

_“OOH, WELL, I HAVEN’T HEARD THIS ONE IN AGES!”_

 

Papyrus wondered what song Nile would pick out.

 

_“PROMISE, YOU WILL SING, TOO”_

“YOU CANNOT STOP ME FROM SINGING IF YOU TRY!”

 

Doggo had tried once and it had not ended well.

 

The tune started, and Papyrus knew what to do! But to his surprise Nile started singing first.

_ARE YOU READY STEVE?_

_…_ UH HUH

  
_ANDY?_

YEAH

_  
MICK?_

OKAY

_  
ALRIGHT FELLAS, LET’S GO!!_

 

Papyrus and Nile giggled a bit after singing the intro and then sang the rest of ballroom Blitz while trading off lines.

_OH IT’S BEEN GETTING SO HARD,_

LIVING WITH THE THINGS YOU DO TO ME ~

 

**************************************************

By the time they got to Papyrus’ and Sans’ house, and after Bohemian Rhapsody, Baby Got Back, and Don’t Stop Believin’ the two were laughing like crazy. They even stayed in the car to finish off Don’t Stop Believin’.

 

“ _HEH HEH HEH..._   _PY, YOU HAVE SUCH A NICE VOICE.”_

“NO, NO MY VOICE IS SO LOUD. YOURS IS NICE AND SOFT COMPARED TO MINE.”

 

Technically, her voice was softer, although that was a very low bar.

 

Still she smiled. She broke from his gaze and looked at where he had stopped.

 

_“OH PY, IS THIS HUGE PLACE YOUR HOUSE?”_

“WELL, MY BROTHER AND I SHARE IT. BUT YEAH, HUMAN DWELLINGS ARE PRETTY LARGE.”

 

Papyrus led Nile into his house. Catsup immediately bolted at the sight of company-so much for impressing Nile with his cute cat.

 

“THERE IS A BATHROOM RIGHT THERE! IT IS USEFUL FOR WASHING UP. I WANT TO GRAB SOMETHING FROM MY BEDROOM.”

 

The skeleton ran up the stairs and fished around for a minute while Nile washed off the worst of the Natron powder. Papyrus came back down with his black and gold Anubis mask.

 

“OK, OK, SO I DO NOT WANT YOU TO FEEL AWKWARD WEARING A MASK, SO I WILL WEAR ONE, TOO. NYEH HEH HEH! AND I PROMISE NOT TO TAKE IT OFF, IT EVEN MATCHES YOUR BASTET MASK!”

 

 _“PY, YOU LOOK GREAT! AND THAT IS REALLY SWEET! ALTHOUGH I LIKE YOUR FACE.”_ Nile stepped up and poked Papyrus’ mask.

“YOU LOOK HAPPIER!” Papyrus poked Nile’s mask’s nose.

 

Without the caked on powder Nile felt that the white dress and mask actually looked better.

 

They stared into each other’s eyes.

 

“NYEH HEH, HEH…UM, WOW YOUR EYES ARE A NICE GREEN!”

 

 _“HEH, WELL, I’VE NEVER SEEN SUCH VIBRANT ORANGE EYES BEFORE, MYSELF”_ Nile Got lost in Papyrus' eye sockets.

Papyrus noticed that the dating HUD was trying to pop up.

 

“UM, IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU WOULD LIKE TO DO TO GET COMFORTABLE BEFORE WE GO? WOULD YOU LIKE SOME PINS SO THE DRESS FITS BETTER?”

 

_“OH YEAH, THAT IS A GOOD IDEA.”_

Nile used a few straight pins to get the dress up to a reasonable height for walking.

 

“OH NILE, UH A PIN FELL OUT.” The pin slipped out, and had fallen onto the floor.

 

_“OH, DO YOU MIND GETTING IT?”_

“OH OF COURSE.”

 

Papyrus knelt down, while Nile sat on the couch. Papyrus reached over Nile’s leg to pin the dress.

 

The Dating HUD tried to pop up again-Papyrus had to quickly push it down. Oh crap had Nile noticed! Nile was blushing, now that the powder was gone, she couldn’t hide it as well.

 

_“YOU KNOW PY, DON’T YOU WORK AT THE PLACE WHERE THERE IS KARAOKE?”_

“WELL YES…”

 

 _“WELL, I WENT THERE YESTERDAY, AND I HAVEN’T BEEN TO YOUR HOUSE YET..."_  Nile smiled mysteriously at Papyrus,

 

" _CAN WE, PERHAPS HANG OUT HERE INSTEAD?”_

“RIGHT… YES, MY HOUSE IS A UM…A NEW LOCATION BUT IT IS NOT QUITE AS EXCITING, DO YOU MIND”

 

_“WELL… NOT REALLY. WE COULD DO OTHER THINGS. JUST GET TO KNOW EACH OTHER.”_

Papyrus tried to suppress the Dating Hud again, he could not stop the room from turning black. Mercifully, the green rectangles that indicated it was a regular encounter popped up instead. Nile smiled again.

 

**UM…NILE. BEFORE WE DO ANY, UM HOUSE EXPLORING, MAYBE YOU WOULD LIKE SOMETHING TO GET YOUR ENERGY UP? UM. I KNOW IT IS EXHAUSTING TO DO... THINGS WHEN YOU ARE MAGIC DRAINED.**

Papyrus was still kneeling in front of Nile on the couch.

 

 **ACT -- >** ***GIVE GIFT**

**I UM, GOT YOU A FEW PRESENTS! ONE FOR YOUR BIRTHDAY, AND ONE SINCE YOU GAVE ME THIS BANDAGE.**

Papyrus held out the box, he had hidden this one in his inventory, since he was not wearing the hat.

 

**_OH WOW, PAPYRUS! YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO…_ **

Nile opened the box that had been carefully wrapped with red wrapping paper and a bow. Nile, stuck the bow on her head, which Papyrus thought was super cute.

 

First she pulled out a pretty red shawl. It was like Papyrus’ scarf, but newer and sheer. Underneath the scarf was a pendant.

 

**YOU SHOULD HIDE THAT FROM YOUR MOTHER…**

It was an hourglass pendent filled with what looked like red sand.

 

**IT IS TECHNICALLY A MAKESHIFT SAND MADE FROM TINY GRANULES OF YOUR BIRTHSTONE. THE BIRTHSTONE THING IS A TRADITION HUMANS HAVE. I FIGURED YOU COULD KEEP YOUR MAGIC UP WITH THIS.**

Nile gasped... it was a very special gift. She experimented by tilting the hourglass sand back and forth. She felt a warm glow fill her fingertips and move into her soul. She felt less exhausted, although casting magic would still be difficult with the dumb mask.

 

The green lines of the Encounter screen were disappearing and wavering in and out of existence- but they held.

 

It was Nile’s turn.

 

 **ACT -- >** *** FLIRT**

 

 

**_HEY PY, IT IS REALLY PRETTY. CAN YOU HELP ME GET IT ON?_ **

****

Papyrus’ eyebrows went up- and finally so did the dating HUD. Nile smiled.

 

The population graph was up, CRIME was up, REEL IT IN was blinking orange. The two looked at the little blue dating bar- they were already maxed!

 

Papyrus started to stand, but Nile just leaned forward on the couch. He carefully reached around her neck… and slipped the necklace was on… Nile reached for Papyrus’ chin, and nuzzled him… rubbing against his smile…careful not to nudge the mask…

 

“I…I DO NOT EVEN HAVE LIPS…TO KISS YOU WITH…”

 

 _“NEITHER DO I…”_ Nile carefully removed a bandage…

Papyrus gave in, he tried not to think about how out of order this was going according to the dating manual…

 

Nile brushed her teeth against his...

 

Dating manual be damned.

 

“NILE, I THINK I LIKE YOU.”

 

_“I THINK I LIKE YOU TOO PAPYRUS-AND”_

Nile paused and leaned in closer,

 

“ _PY I THINK I WANT YOU…”_

“NILE...I THINK I WANT YOU TOO.”

 

They locked eyes for what seemed like the hundredth time that night.

Papyrus carefully lifted Nile off the couch, her mask brushed against him. But she carefully held it on.

 

They giggled…

 

“SORRY, GUESS WE NEED TO BE CAREFUL WITH THE MASK”

 

The two kissed and the mask shifted a bit… and little tendrils of black magic started to snake out. Papyrus placed Nile down and backed away, while Nile fixed the darn thing again, a bit frustrated.

 

_“YOU KNOW MY MOTHER DID NOT CURSE MY ENITRE OUTFIT.”_

“NILE?”

 

“ _IF YOU ARE INTERESTED.”_

“I…HAVEN’T HAD ANYONE INTERESTED IN ME IN THAT WAY BEFORE.”

 

_“WELL, I AM.”_

Papyrus picked up Nile, her soft gown flowing against his arms, and he carried her into his bedroom.

 

“JUST TELL ME… IF I AM DOING IT WRONG.”

 

Papyrus laid Nile on the bed, unsure of how to proceed.

 

_“HEH HEH, CAN YOU HELP ME WITH A FEW PINS?”_

Nile pulled Papyrus forward and placed his hands on her legs and helped move him forward. Papyrus kissed each leg while touching her gently and moved his head upward... kissing higher and higher.

 

“NILE IS IT OK?”

 

_“YES! IT IS NICE!”_

Papyrus was surprised at how tightly wrapped Nile’s bandages were. He delicately ran his hands over them-his finger got stuck under one for a second. Oops... But Nile just giggled.

 

She moved his hands to hold her dress and he lifted her dress up, carefully pulling it over her head…very, very… carefully. Thankfully, the mask stayed on.

 

Nile reached under Papyrus’ shirt, he nodded that it was fine, and she lifted it over his head.

 

The two kissed. Nile moved her hand over Papyrus’ ribcage. It felt…really nice. Papyrus had one hand on her stomach and another on her soft bandaged legs.

 

_“HERE”_

Nile undid a few of her chest bandages and guided Papyrus’ hand to the area, Papyrus nuzzled her gently.

_“JUST THESE…I…I WANT TO SHOW YOU.”_

A tiny white soul fluttered through her ribcage, very tranquilly. It radiated a bright white light, although Papyrus was sad to see what looked like little bandages wrapped around it. The soul was pressing against them, like it wanted to grow bigger but could not.

“WOW NILE! YOU ARE SO BEAUTIFUL AND YOUR SOUL IS SO CALM.” Papyrus looked at Nile and smiled, he laid next to her on the bed.

 

“HERE,I HOPE IT IS OK...” Papyrus really wanted to share his too. He hoped she would like it, he let his soul phase into existence.

 

Papyrus’ soul was larger, also glowing a bright white. His soul beat steadily, but it seemed to be moving restlessly though, wavering in place from side to side and not sure what it wanted to do.

 

_“PAPYRUS, YOURS IS SO VIBRANT AND STRONG!”_

“NILE!"

 

Their souls both lit up!

 

“OW WOW…NILE…IS THAT OK?”

 

“ _HEH…YES…I THINK IT WOULD BE…”_

The two held hands, and theirs souls got closer.

The two white hearts started to fill with color, hers a pretty emerald green and his a bright pumpkin orange. A thread of green light moved from her soul to his-she filled it with feelings of harmony and love.

 

Papyrus felt a warm tingling sensation over his body. His soul stopped wavering, and he felt relaxed? Like all his worries were just melting away.

 

Papyrus wanted her to feel special, he sent out his own orange thread filling it with love and strength.  Nile smiled, her soul broke a little bandage. She felt free and happy.

 

For a moment the two felt a wonderful sense of warmth and love. They pressed together, bringing their souls closer ready to share more.

 

*********

 

The mask Nile was wearing glowed… it floated off her face… and let out a hideous shriek…

 

 

Nile and Papyrus tried to separate, but a sinister black lightning strike jumped from the mask towards Papyrus!

 

He dodged it, but it boomeranged back. He activated the shield from his shell, it hit the shield and broke- causing the black beam to bounce back a third time quickly- is seemed to be drawn to his essence. Not even Sans could have teleported out of that one.

 

The beam of magic hit Papyrus right in the face directly on the Anubis mask-Little black wisps writhed out of the beam and jumped onto his face and the mask, they converged and heated up.

 

It was like having a thousand flaming pasta noodles glued to his head he did his best not to scream.

 

But he could not hold it back.

 

Nile tried to help, now that her mask had fallen to the floor, little sand attacks managed to get a few of them off. As she got into the rhythm of having magic again she was able to remove them by the dozen! But more and more kept pulsing out of the mask.

 

Papyrus fell on the ground, the black wisps were coming down and wrapping around his head. They proceeded to spread down his torso. He tried to use a blue attack, he pushed the blue attack over his arm.

 

The wrappings stopped, they were taking damage!

 

_“PAPYRUS…KEEP IT UP! YOU CAN FIGHT IT!”_

Papyrus shifted his blue attack to his torso, and pushed the wrappings back! Although, his whole face felt like it was on fire…he pushed and pushed...and slowly... the wrappings moved off his neck….off his face… and retreated to the mask itself… he moved the blue magic to the mask…and gave one last desperate push….

 

 

The wrappings retreated into the mask and their writhing stopped.

 

Papyrus touched his head and the mask. The constant searing pain was gone, but every once in a while a wisp of a wrapping would appear and Papyrus would feel a little sting of heat. 

 

Papyrus stopped the blue magic he sighed,  Nile held him in her arms.

 

“ _I AM SO SORRY. THIS IS ALL MY FAULT, YOU JUST WANTED TO GO SING. AND I-”_

“NO, NILE! I DO NOT REGRET A THING. I WANTED TO STAY HERE, TOO. AND I WANTED TO SHARE MY SOUL WITH YOU... HOW WERE WE SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT WOULD TRIGGER THE CURSE? BESIDES, I AM FINE NOW! NO MUMMY CURSE CAN DUST THE GREAT PAPYRUS!”

 

Papyrus leaned into Nile and tried to charmingly wiggle his eyebrows at her. He nuzzled into her shoulders and gave her a kiss on her now mask-less face.

 

 _“AFTER ALL THAT YOU STILL WANT TO KISS ME?”_ Nile looked exasperated, but smiled happily at Papyrus.

 

“WELL, THE DATING GUIDEBOOK SAYS THAT YOU NEED TO CHARM AND WOO YOUR GIRLFRIEND OFTEN.”

 

_"GIRLFRIEND?"_

 

"UH, IF YOU ARE OK WITH IT? I AM NOT REALLY THE TYPE OF MONSTER TO HAVE SOUL SEX AND THEN WALK AWAY." 

 

  _"PY, THAT IS-IF YOU WILL STAY WITH ME AFTER THAT? I WOULD LOVE TO BE YOUR GIRL."_

 

Papyrus leaned in for another kiss, which Nile broke off-

 

_"BUT LET'S MAKE SURE YOU ARE OK?" MM MOTHER IS NOTORIOUS FOR HER CURSES."_

 

Nile was worried. Another black wisp came off Papyrus' face and singed him.

 

_“WELL, LET’S GET THIS MASK OFF OF YOU.”_

Nile tried to pull the mask off- but it would not budge. She tried again, but it was as if it was glued on.

 

Papyrus grabbed the mask and pulled as hard as her could, but he only succeeded in making his skull hurt.

 

The curse had only just begun.

************************************************************************

 

Nile and Papyrus sat in the couple’s office at the Monster Clinic.

 

Every once in a while a wrapping emerged from the mask, turned red-hot and burned Papyrus. Papyrus wondered how the hell Sans and Grillby could touch all the time. Sans must have a face of steel...

 

It was about 10pm and at this point in the day it seemed to just be emergency walk-ins.

 

In one corner, a tsundereplane and her boyfriend were leaking oil everywhere and couldn’t seem to stop, around the side two rabbits were looking really nervous holding a bottle of pills, on the far end of the room a rock, fire, and water elemental looked like they were stuck together, and finally, next to them on the couch a minotaur headed bull monster man had a horn stuck in an ooze man’s arm.

 

The ooze monster looked at Papyrus as another jolt of burning bandage zapped him.

 

“what happened to you two?”

 

“A MUMMY MOMMY’S CURSE.”

 

“ooph sorry” The ooze monster turned back to look at the horned Taurus monster, wincing slightly.

 

Nile put held out her hand for Papyrus, she was still upset, but she wanted to comfort him. Papyrus took her hand, he still wanted to appear brave.

 

“IT IS OK. IT REALLY DOES NOT HURT MUCH ANYMORE.” Papyrus would be more convincing if he could get his face to stop wincing.

The two had been waiting in the clinic for almost an hour... the clinic had had to call in the necrotic specialist from home, since he wasn’t in today, a ghost man had rushed in through the wall ten minutes ago. Papyrus hoped that was the monster in question.

 

After the initial shock, they were starting to get bored.

 

Papyrus looked around the room, and pointed out the wall of monsterlings, that now included Undyne and Alphys and their little ones. Nile smiled.

 

The two fawned over monsterlings for a few minutes.

 

The Scorpion Monster Janet was typing notes hurriedly…the clinic was crowded tonight. She had to place a rush order for slime away, call the Guard, and get all three elemental specialists to come in at the same time. She wanted to go home, but lots of monsters needed help.

 

“Mr. SSsssskeleton and Mssss. Red our Necrotic ssspecialissssst is ready for you.”

 

Dr. Jangles floated into the room and led them to a private consultation room. He got straight to the point.

 

“So, I read over your account, and there is good and bad.”

 

Dr. Jangles continued quickly,

 

“Technically, you did not break the Main curse, which would have been removing the mask, which you thankfully did not do, or you would be covered in black bandages that slowly constricted you till you are dust.”

 

Dr. Jangles pointed to Papyrus,

 

“For the record, we have seen worse Mummy curses, and we would be able to stop the pain and constriction, but you would be covered in bandages for the rest of your life.”

 

Papyrus liked being part Mummy, but he liked his body as it was- cuddly and not being covered in black bandages.

 

“However, Mummies like to be tricky and each curse is usually layered with sub-curses. When you attempted to soul share, you triggered a sub-curse, not as strong but it still would have covered in wrappings for a decade if it were not for your blue magic and sand attacks weakening it. So in that sense you are incredibly lucky!”

 

“Now, the bad news is that while we can help you remove the mask, the wrappings will likely cover the area of your face under it. I think that with your magic we can get them to disappear in one to three months. Thankfully you two came here quickly, but every minute we wait is a minute it grows stronger.”

 

As if to illustrate, a  bandage popped out of the mask and Papyrus felt a sting of heat.

 

Papyrus nodded.

 

“Now, we need to move quickly, so I will not make you sign paperwork.  If you give verbal permission, I will proceed with mask removal.”

 

“YES, PLEASE REMOVE THE CURSED MASK! YOU CAN DO WHATEVER YOU NEED.”

 

Dr, Jangles winced, he was not going to like this.

 

“Ok, well I am going to use my magic to grip it and remove it from your face, it will probably hurt quite a lot. We could knock you out first, but the anesthesia we need to knock out a skeleton takes a while. ”

 

“IT IS FINE”

 

“Ok, have these first at least!”

 

Dr. Jangles watched intensely as Papyrus downed two Cinnamon Bunnies, Papyrus’ HP went back to max.

 

Dr. Jangles nodded. Satisfied that the HP was up, 680 HP was pretty high for a skeleton.

 

“Ok, this may sting a bit.”

 

Nile offered her hand out, and Papyrus held on to it.

 

Blue magic covered the mask as Dr. Jangles moved his arm nubs, concentrating as much as he could. The magic moved from the front of the mask, it did not hurt at first, but then the doctor got to the edges-

 

It hurt like hell.

 

The ghost’s magic was sharp and as it pried open it felt like a scalpel was cutting through him and scraping his face. The mask had bonded with him magically and it felt like his own face was being cut off.

 

Papyrus concentrated on not passing out.

 

He heard Dr. Jangles voice faintly and felt the magic pause, it was glorious.

 

“If you need to we can stop?”

 

Papyrus somehow found himself replying, not aware that his mouth was moving,

 

“NO, KEEP GOING, LET’S JUST PUSH THROUGH.”

 

“Ok, I have it off your jaw and nose, just need to do the eyes.”

 

Papyrus closed his eyes and squeezed Nile’s hand as the horrible sensation continued.

 

Nile’s hand was getting squeezed pretty hard but she held tight and stroked his hand with her spare.

 

After what felt like an eternity but was actually just five minutes, Dr Jangles had removed the jackal mask- it was now ripped in two pieces.

 

The back had an inscription burnt into it: ‘Ibn El-Kalb’.

 

_“SON OF A DOG, CLASSY MOTHER. CLASSY.”_

“I did my best so that is not written on your face.” Dr. Jangles held up a mirror...

 

Black bandages were surrounding Papyrus’ eye sockets and nasal cavity. His upper teeth were discolored black and the feint outline of the words on his face had been scratched to be illegible. Papyrus touched his face… little wisps of broken bandages tried to wrap his finger bone.

 

“Do not worry, they cannot spread unless you drain yourself of all magic, so please stay topped off, or it could take years to dissipate. I tried my best to scratch the bandages to weaken them, but if I scrape any lower I could scar your face.”

 

_“WILL IT ALL FADE?”_

“Yes, it will, but now I need to ask you something.”

 

_“SURE.”_

“Did you affirm it was your mother and not yourself, who put the curse on the mask?”

 

_“WELL, YES.”_

“IT WAS NOT NILE.”

Dr. Jangles phased through the door towards the waiting room, only for the door to open again.

 

Another figure stepped into the room. Dogamy stepped into the room, frowning. It was weird to see him without Dogaressa, but Papyrus supposed they must need to split up occasionally.

 

“Papyrus, is that you?” 

 

Dogamy walked up to Papyrus and smelled him, when he smelled Papyrus’ face he let out a mix of a growl and a whimper. Dogamy gave Papyrus a very big hug and then held out her paw for Nile to shake.

 

“Papyrus when I heard about a couple of necrotics getting injured, it was you?”

 

“UM. YES.”

 

Dogamy's tail drooped down, sinking between his legs.

 

“So, as you may have guessed, whenever a violent crime is committed-in this case an indirect magical attack or curse-Doctors are encouraged to report to police, or since it is a magical case, royal guards, who are now police.”

 

“I am sorry for the dissolution of confidentiality, but I felt it was necessary.” Dr. Jangles sighed.

 

Dogamy continued,

 

“I agree with the Doctor’s decision. The type of curse that was on that mask- Well If Papyrus here was weaker monster that would have killed him. However, under careful reading of the law, it appears that the curse maker purposefully picked a variant that has yet to be marked as illegal, a loophole that we will fix...as soon as the human court systems finish cataloguing our thirty volumes of magical law into their books.”

 

Dogamy whined a bit thinking about the paperwork and then sighed.

“So you might be wondering why I am here, if I cannot do anything legally. I am here to offer support. If either of you feel threatened again by the assailant, I would like you to know I can escort you to safety.”

 

_“PROTECT ME… FROM MY MOTHER?”_

Dogamy had not been told it was her mother, although from dealing with similar cases he had suspected it was a family member. He bowed his head.

“Young lady, I would like to point out that if the mask had slipped off, YOU would be the one turned to dust, even if your mother is doing it out of deep moral convictions, it is still dangerous. So if you ever feel like you need someone to talk to, here is my contact information. I am more than happy to lend a helping paw!”

 

With that Dogamy backed away, saluted them, and then left.

 

Dr. Jangles turned to them,

 

“Sorry about that. But as a concerned monster I had to inform authorities. Now may not be ideal, but I also must inform you that if you would like any medical advice on Soul sharing or any other related questions, feel free to come for a couple’s appointment. We are having a special next week, only five gold for a DATING report, um, if you are interested.”

Papyrus and Nile left the clinic, what were they going to do?  Nile dropped her mask in the trash outside the clinic and Papyrus dropped the remains of his. They let out a collective sigh.

 


	34. In which we never make it to Jerome

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Papyrus and Nile brace themselves with the aftermath of the curse. Sans and Grillby do not visit Jerome, AZ.

Papyrus thought about going to bed, but looking at the tattered black magical bandages limply waving on the ground of his room had made the skeleton want to magically vomit. He grabbed a few pillows and walked downstairs, stopping in the edge of the bathroom. He looked in the mirror.

 

A nasty looming skeleton with horrible black bandages covering his face stared back at him. He decided to just head downstairs and pretend that was not himself.

 

Nile held Papyrus’ hand and led him to the couch. Papyrus sat down and Nile put the pillow behind him. Nile gently touched Papyrus’ face,

 

_“DOES IT HURT?”_

 

“NO. I AM A VERY STRONG MONSTER SO THIS IS JUST LIKE A TINY-”

 

A magical wisp that had not been scratched as well by the ghost doctor smacked him on the forehead. Papyrus made a wincing noise.

 

“UM, YES. IT HURTS. AND I FEEL A BIT HIDEOUS.”

 

Nile sat with Papyrus for a few minutes. Honestly, his face stung pretty badly, but he liked it when she gently caressed it.

 

_“YOUR FACE IS LOVELY, BUT HURT. SO MAYBE I COULD MAKE YOU SOMETHING TO EAT? WE NEED TO KEEP YOUR MAGIC UP, RIGHT?”_

__

Papyrus wasn’t sure he could eat anything, maybe just a drink?

 

“UM, MILK GETS MY MAGIC UP, SO I THINK I WILL JUST HAVE A GLASS-”

 

Nile jumped off the couch and gently pushed Papyrus back down onto the pillow when it looked like he wanted to help- after opening a few cabinets Nile found the glasses and poured Papyrus a glass of milk and then resumed petting his head.

 

Papyrus was worried about Nile,

 

“YOU DO NOT HAVE TO GET THINGS FOR ME.”

 

_“PY… YOU WERE JUST ATTACKED BY A CURSED MASK FROM MY MOTHER. LET ME DOTE ON YOU A BIT.”_

Papyrus smiled. He guessed it was nice. He drank the glass of milk- which tasted a bit sour, but got his magic up. He’d get some fresh stuff in the morning.

 

 

“ARE YOU HUNGRY? WE COULD ORDER A PIZZA OR SOMETHING?”

 

 

_“UM. NO THANK YOU, I THINK I CANNOT EAT AFTER THAT. WOULD IT BE OK FOR ME TO MAKE BREAKFAST IN THE MORNING? ALTHOUGH I AM NOT THE BEST AT COOKING”_

“I BET YOUR COOKING IS GREAT! WOWIE! THAT SOUNDS GREAT! BUT IF YOU ARE NOT UP FOR IT, I CAN MAKE YOU SOMETHING AT THE RESTURAUNT, I WORK 9-2 ON SATURDAYS.”

 

_“OH, THANK YOU! I SHOULD HOP BACK HOME TOMORROW MORNING, AND TRY TO GET MY THINGS… I THINK I WANT TO MOVE TO THE SURFACE AFTER THIS. COULD YOU DROP ME OFF BEFORE YOUR WORK?”_

 

“SURE! I CAN ALSO PICK YOU UP AFTER WORK. BUT, WILL YOU BE OK GOING BY YOURSELF?”

 

Papyrus realized something.

 

“WAIT! YOU HAVE BEEN WITH ME ALL NIGHT, WONT THAT ANNOY YOUR MOM? SHOULD YOU PRETEND THE MASK DIDN’T COME OFF? SHOULD I RUN AND GET IT OUT OF THE TRASH?”

 

Nile frowned at narrowed her eyes.

 

_“I AM TIRED OF LIVING UNDER HER THUMB. IT IS TIME I PUT MY FOOT DOWN. I AM NEVER PUTTING THAT MASK ON AGAIN, AND I WOULD NOT WANT YOU TO TOUCH IT AFTER WHAT IT DID TO YOU. I DO NOT CARE WHAT SHE THINKS, NOT AFTER SHE HURT YOU. I-I THINK IT IS TIME I MOVED OUT.”_

Nile hugged Papyrus.

“UM, WELL IF YOU WANT I CAN HELP YOU FIND A PLACE, OR YOU CAN STAY WITH ME, OR BOTH?”

 

_“UM, YOU ARE OK WITH ME STAYING WITH YOU WHILE I LOOK FOR A JOB AND A PLACE TO STAY? IS THAT OK WITH YOUR BROTHER, HE WON’T MIND SOME STRANGE WOMAN STAYING IN THE HOUSE?”_

“YOU CAN STAY AS LONG AS YOU NEED. AND HE HAS HIS BOYFRIEND OVER ALL THE TIME, AND WE USED TO HAVE UNDYNE OVER WHENEVER HER HOUSE WAS ON FIRE- WHICH WAS OFTEN, NYEH HEH HEH. I AM SURE HE WILL BE HAPPY TO HAVE YOU.”

 

Papyrus would normally call Sans, but he did not want his brother to come down from his vacation early to help with this.

 

Nile’s eyes lit up.

 

_“THANK YOU! I THINK IT WILL BE FUN T STAY WITH YOU A WHILE...AND...”_

Nile did not want to admit this next part, but it might be a good idea,

 

_“AND IF YOU DO NOT HEAR BACK FROM ME BY 2:00 PM…I MIGHT NEED SOME HELP, SO HERE IS MY ADDRESS.”_

Papyrus looked worried, now.

“YOU KNOW I CAN JUST TAKE THE DAY OFF TOMORROW, OR WE CAN GO TOGETHER AFTER 2:00? MAYBE, THAT WOULD JUST BE BETTER?”

 

_“YOU THINK IT IS SAFE FOR YOU TO COME TO MY PARENT’S HOUSE?”_

“DO YOU THINK IT IS SAFE FOR _YOU_ TO GO TO YOUR PARENTS HOUSE?”

 

_“I AM NOT SURE. BUT AFTER YOU WERE JUST ATTACKED! IT WOULD BE BETTER IF YOU RESTED. IF I CAN DE-ESCALATE THE SITUATION BY NOT HAVING YOU THERE, THEN IT WILL BE EASIER FOR ME TO GRAB MY THINGS AND GO.”_

Papyrus looked at Nile, she was filled with determination. 

 

“OK. BUT I CAN HELP IN ANY WAY IF YOU CHANGE YOUR MIND.”

Nile stroked Papyrus' skull, and Papyrus held Nile tight. Together they fell asleep on the couch.

 

********************************

 

Papyrus woke up to the smell of…well maybe breakfast? He couldn’t believe how late he slept in. It was already 7:00! He jumped off the couch and noticed Nile! Right she was over now!

 

Nile had set up a couple of plates of a very nice looking breakfast.

 

_“MORNING SLEEPYSKULL!”_

Papyrus had no idea why she said she couldn’t cook, it looked amazing…and she didn’t have any formal training at all! There were fluffy pancakes, an omelet, oranges cut into little flower shapes, and- um fried pickles?

 

“WOW, YOU ARE AMAZING, THIS LOOKS GREAT! I DO NOT KNOW WHY YOU SAID YOU COULDN’T COOK! NYEH HEH HEH”

 

Nile looked nervously at the food, as though she did not quite believe it.

 

“ _WELL, HEH HEH. GO ON AND TRY IT.”_ Nile looked like she was praying he would like it.

Papyrus took a huge bite of the omelet. Oh. oh. It tasted like the eggs had gone bad. That was the last time he let Sans get groceries. What had he bought? Cracked green eggs? Rotten milk? Oh well, Papyrus was a skeleton, so it would not kill him, but man, he should try something else.

 

Nile was looking at him, and if she had a lip she would be biting it.

 

Papyrus decided to try the pancakes. They were better…but the milk from last night was definitely sour and affected their flavor. He tried the orange instead-oh my Asgore – was the fruit bad, too?

 

“UM…NILE. THIS FOOD LOOKS SO NICE, AND WAS CLEARLY COOKED PERFECTLY! BUT I AM SORRY YOU HAD TO COOK WITH THE GROSS FOOD MY BROTHER BOUGHT. I DID NOT REALIZE EVEN THE ORANGES WERE BAD. WE CAN GO GROCERY SHOPPING LATER AND GET SOME FRESH STUFF.”

 

 _“UM, PAPYRUS, MAYBE IT WAS NOT THAT THE FOOD WAS BAD.”_ Nile was looking downwards.

“HUH?”

_“YOU KNOW HOW DIFFERENT MONSTERS HAVE DIFFERENT MAGIC?”_  
  


“YUP! I HAVE BLUE MAGIC!”

 

_“WELL…I HAVE SAND MAGIC. SAND MAGIC IS BROWN MAGIC, SO I GET SOME SAND POWERS AND A…UM SLIGHT TENDENCY TO CAUSE DECAY IF I AM NERVOUS.”_

“UM, WAIT SO, THE EGGS AND MILK WENT BAD BECAUSE YOU TOUCHED THEM AND YOU ARE NERVOUS?”

 

_“IT ONLY HAPPENS SOMETIMES! UM…. BUT IT IS NOT A PROBLEM WITH OTHER THINGS! JUST FOOD! WHICH IS A SHAME, BECAUSE I LOVE COOKING! I GUESS THAT IS WHY I HAVE A TENDENCY TO MAKE THINGS WITH LOTS OF PRESERVATIVES, THUS THE PICKLES!”_

 

Papyrus chomped on a fried pickle. It was excellent.

 

_“SORRY I SUBJECTED YOU TO THE REST. THE FAMILY HAS THE SAME PROBLEM, SO WE JUST GET USED TO THIS SORT OF FOOD. I WONDERED IF YOU WOULD CARE OR NOT.”_

 

“WELL. TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH, UNTIL LAST YEAR I WAS PRETTY AWFUL AT COOKING. MY POOR BROTHER ATE ALL MY UM…EXPERIMENTS. SO FEAR NOT! I WILL TRY ALL OF YOUR CULINARY CREATIONS AND HELP YOU FEEL LESS NERVOUS!”

 

Papyrus gave Nile a bony kiss. She felt all tingly inside, but less nervous.

 

**************************************

Doggo, Doggo’s Seeing Eye dog Jasmine, Greater Dog, Lesser Dog, and Dogaressa were back form vacationing with the extended family. So much smelling and petting and fetch-it had been great! Dogaressa felt her four little pups were ready for some solid food and had decided to hop into Grillby’s for some breakfast. Doggo waved to Papyrus. He like Papyrus, the guy was always moving in some way so it was pretty easy to see him. He knew LD really liked the skeleton, too.

 

Doggo was happy to see it was pretty busy and filled with lots of new families he didn’t recognize. Aside from the old bunny, slime, and bear families there were elementals, humans, and even a zombie lady sitting alone- no wait she was talking to a familiar face- Papyrus. Before Doggo could think, the skeletal waiter was off again dashing around and into the kitchen.

 

LD was staring at his phone somberly.

 

“LD, what is up with you, woof!”

 

LD was staring at a picture of Papyrus with the zombie lady, another skeleton, and a mummy.

 

Papyrus popped out of the kitchen again and delivered a large tray to a Bunny group. He saw Doggo and rushed over to get their orders.  


As the skeleton sauntered over, Doggo noticed something seemed off. Was his face covered in bandages? Even worse the bandages were moving? LD and Doggo tried to give Papyrus a good greeting sniff, but the skeleton shifted slightly. Was something up?

 

“HELLO DOGGO, JASMINE, LD, DOGARESSA, GREATER DOG, AND FOUR TINY DOGS. DID SOMEONE HAVE PUPS? CONGRATULATIONS!”

 

 

“Yes, Woof! I Found out I was pregnant in Mid-May, and here they are! Doggmatt, Doggeddy, Doggamber, and Spot! Let them say hi Papyrus!” Doggaressa was very pleased looking. She held out the pups and each one took a turn licking Papyrus’ arm. Papyrus was happy they didn’t seem to be-

 

Nope-there is was- Spot bit him. It was a torch he would have to bear, to be edible looking to young monsterlings. Papyrus would have to start bringing a jar of dog biscuits around again.

 

The pups were similar to Dogamy and Dogaressa, except each had their own unique fur style, with Doggmatt having a pompadour shaped fur ruff, Dogeddy having curls, Dogamber having a sort of mullet, and Spot having a black spot on their head.

 

“Sorry, dearie, they are teething, so I am hoping to get them onto some hard food.”

 

“NO PROBLEM! WOWIE! EVERYONE IS HAVING MONSTERLINGS! HELLO LITTLE DOGGMATT, DOGGEDDY, DOGGAMBER, AND SPOT!”

 

“Woof, Hey Papyrus, what happened to your-” Doggo tried to ask but as usual was interrupted by everyone else.

 

“WOOF! Papyrus, could you take our order, these pups sure are hungry!”

 

Dogaressa winked at Papyrus, and a relieved Papyrus got the menu out and took their orders. Doggo was really wondering what was going on.

 

Papyrus came back with their special order of family pancakes complete with kibble and whipped cream. The puppies dug in happily, licking kibble bits and whipped cream off their little muzzles.

 

Ok, now Doggo could ask-

 

This time LD interrupted, holding up his phone and pointing,

 

“BARK BARK WHOO?”

 

“OH YES, HOW RUDE OF ME, WOULD YOU LIKE TO MEET MY FRIEND ZOSTRA?” Papyrus ran over to the nearby table.

 

“…Hello….it is…nice to meet some…mooooree of Py’s frieeends…” Zostra moaned and held a hand while Papyrus introduced everyone.

 

Doggo shook hands with Zostra. The zombie’s hand fell off in the process. Everyone watched trying not to wince as Doggo squeamishly dropped said hand into his pancakes... twice.

 

LD whimpered as the hand crawled back to Zostra.

 

“Ohhh, sorry…I suppooose that can happen! Well… do not worry about ittttt…. Py’s cooking is amazing for a part Mummy…better than Nile’s…thaaaank gooodnes!”

 

Zostra good-naturedly licked some of the whipped cream off her hands.

 

“NILE IS A GREAT COOK ZOSTRA! I HOPE YOU ALL CAN MEET HER, SHE IS COMING UP FROM THE UNDEGROUND AND WILL PROBABLY BE STAYING WITH ME FOR A BIT. WE MIGHT COME BACK HERE AFTER SHE IS DONE GETTING THINGS FROM HER PARENTS HOME.”

 

“Oh good, she is leaving her mother’s?” Dogaressa looked happy. Papyrus supposed Dogamy had told her everything.

 

“Oh…myyy… I wish she had tooold me. Herrr…mother is a real case of boooone rot…have you heard back form her since sheeee….arrived?”

 

“NOT YET.” Papyrus was starting to get nervous. Doggo was curious about what was going on, but figured he would ask Paps later in private.

 

The dogs invited Zostra to sit at their table, and the group chatted while Papyrus finished his shift.

 

**********************************************************************

 

Sans felt petty bad for Grillby, the elemental had been hoping to go to the woods for a day, but alas the Petrified Forest turned out to be trees turned to stone. They started in the visitor center to learn a bit.

 

Grillby took a bunch of pictures of the family in the museum and read about the area’s natural history, which included Triassic fauna and flora. He took pictures of the monsters next to various fossils, and settled on one of Sans and a Pterosaur as his new background photo.

 

Since it was the summer there were several active paleontologists who worked on extracting fossils. One such paleontologist carefully looked through a microscope at a tiny arm bone of some tiny lizard and cleaned it with tiny little tools.

 

“Sometimes it is hard to tell how the bones fit together, we do careful research to avoid the mistakes of the past. I can’t even tell you about how wrong some interpretations of early stegosauruses were, how we thought T-Rexes were tri-pods, and now we know many dinosaurs had feathers. It is hard to understand the limit of joints and what is possible, who knows maybe in a decade we will learn what we are doing is completely wrong?”

 

Sans tried to summon a pair of bones that looked like the one the researcher was working on. He moved them around and tried to see if it felt right. They weren’t perfect, Sans wasn’t exactly an artist.

 

“OH MY GOODNESS. That is amazing.” The researcher watched in awe as Sans moved the bones around.

 

 

Sans and the researchers got into a pretty serious conversation about joints, which made every monster else start to zone out.

 

Sans paused,

 

“um, grillbabe, do you mind if I stay here for a _joint_ session while you guys tour the outside?”

 

 

“…No problem…have fun with archeology!...” Grillby was happy Sans was having a good time and was relieved not to hear the details.

 

 

Science-d out the rest of the group went outside and hiked to the area with the petrified tree pieces.

 

 

It was a bit windy outside, but the air smelled nice, and the blue grey sky was crisp and clear against the Painted Desert.

 

Magmus was drooling at every rainbow colored log, and Afi described the Petrified Forest as “an exercise in self control.”

 

Fiametta and Grillby were less partial to rocks, but were enjoying the history of the location. Apparently, the Painted Desert and Chinle formation were also formed by volcanic activity in the Triassic period.

 

It was so peaceful outside, no animals, no sounds, just pure pristine desert and a heavy heat. Everyone tried to soak up some sun, and although there were several clouds in the sky, the monsters got a healthy glow.

 

Afi wanted to listen for volcanic activity again, and although they strained Grillby and Magmus could hear nothing.

 

Afi closed his eyes and hummed,

 

“wELL…the vOLCanic activity is lONg GOne… deep below the surface…there are ONly whispers of the tALe... two tectonic plates fought…. and one forced the other into the earth’s mANTle, melting it…to Mmagma…not a hAPPY story…But the magma that remAINS has forgotten why they clashed… that is the way… to fight and fade… you rejoin the earth’s core…”

 

Afi was looking a bit somber.

 

“Did…I evER…tell…you…about the war…”

 

Magmus and Grillby walked up to their dad, each putting an arm on his shoulder.

 

“I was just a little mAGma bubble… but I remember…” Afi took a breath.

 

“…we fought and fought… mother and grandfather were turned to ash… and at the time I fought back… but they won…and now they cannot even remember why we fought… and in fact most monsters do not remember…”

 

Afi let the breath out.

 

“…but perhaps it is for the best…After the war I tried to forget too… but why did everyone have to turn to ash for nothing…?”

 

 

Fiametta ran up to Afi.

 

 

“…Afi...You are…barely bubbling… or shifting…”

 

 

“Wait…really…?”

 

Afi looked startled. He was slowing down true, but usually his voice only changed when it was about to storm.

 

He looked up in horror at the sky-which was now almost completely grey and covered in clouds.

 

“…We need to go…now!” Fiametta realized what was happening and would not have Afi rained on in this state.

 

Only Grillby had thought to bring an umbrella, which he gave to Afi, who gave it to Fiametta.

 

Fiametta exasperatedly held it over herself and Afi as the tried to quickly walk back to the museum as the first raindrops began to fall. Grillby was hoping they would just be the small misty ones.

 

They were not.

 

The were big, heavy things that pelted down, faster, faster, and suddenly every part of Grillby that was not completely covered by the umbrella was searing in pain.  

 

Magmus had not fit very well under the umbrella; he roared out in agony and flailed- the umbrella was knocked-

 

-somewhere… Grillby fumbled for it, and Fiametta grabbed his hand- they needed to make a run for it!

 

The group started to sprint for the museum, but the stinging sensations caused Afi to collapse.

 

“…K..e..e..p…going…” Fiametta did her best to shout, and pushed Magmus forward.

 

Grillby was not going anywhere. He grabbed his mother’s hand and his shell necklace together. Grillby shattered the shell in her hand and smiled as the shield covered her and Afi. The shield was not enough to cover the three of them, though.

 

“…Keep running Grillbert…!”

 

The rain continued to pour.

 

*********************************************

The shield activated, Sans stopped his conversation with the researcher and dashed outside. He looked out, and far away on the trail he saw a feint green glow in a curtain of rain.

 

He short cutted to the glow in a millisecond. The rain was so heavy he couldn’t see who it was. He grabbed on to them, and the other elemental next to them.

 

He, Afi, and Fiametta were in the museum.

 

“…SANS, go find the oth-”

 

Sans had already short cutted to what he thought was the same spot. The rain was still falling hard, but he saw a feint yellow glow. Grillby?

 

No, as Sans short cutted back, he realized the heavy breccia filled monster was Magmus, a very unconscious Magmus. If a big lug like Magmus was unconscious…

 

Sans had to find Grillby.

 

Sans short cutted back outside before anyone could say anything. He flitted through the storm, where was Grillby? Sans called out, but the cruel rain muffled his voice.

 

Sans closed his eyes. He felt his soul cry out in pain and tug at him. Sans turned and the raindrops faded just enough that he could see a dull red glow slam into him! Sans teleported mid slam.

 

In a half second Grillby and Sans crashed into the museum into a chair.

 

Sans looked at Grillby, he looked like he was wincing. His flame hair was red instead of orange and a sputtering flame on top of charcoal patches covered most of his arms and head. Still he was hugging Sans tightly, so he had some strength.

 

Sans looked at the other fire monsters. Fiametta looked mostly fine. Her flame, usually a vibrant red, was a bit slower, but otherwise normal. Magmus was drowsily getting up, most of his body was breccia, which Sans supposed had shielded his core. Even now, yellow cracks between the shifting surface began to glow and bubble back to life.

 

Afi was the real problem. His whole body was still and he was mostly charcoal and soot. Even with the shield, the shock of the rain was causing some problems.

 

A couple scientists helped Sans grab some of the fire food from the car, and Fiametta and Magmus looked better after a few swigs of oil and a few pieces of charcoal. A scientist with a messy dirty blond bun and a prickly beard handed Grillby some 95% Ethanol, and the flame monster went from sputtering to having a low covering of small but healthy red flames.

 

Fiametta tried feeding Afi some charcoal, some olive oil, and woodchips, nothing got his lava moving.

 

A short intern with dark hair and a butterfly clip found another small bottle of 95% Ethanol for Afi.

 

“…thank you humans…I…never would imagine…we could be like this agAIn…”

 

Afi sputtered a few bubbles out, and held the very alarmed scientists hand.

 

Afi stared up at the wall.

 

“…the last time…I was on the surface…we were at war…”

 

Afi’s eyes closed. His whole body faded to dark dusty black. They did not have much time.

 

********************************

 

Sans chugged a whole bottle of ketchup. The museum cafeteria staff had given it to him, so it was fresher than the baked stuff in the car. Speaking of the car…Sans was not sure he could do this.

 

Afi’s eyes were still closed, but he was still conscious. His extremities were turning from black to grey.

 

“…K-keep…telling your…st-story dad…it’s re-really good...” Grillby was trying not to cry while he kept Afi talking. If Afi stopped talking he would fall even more quickly.

 

“…sure thing…little Grillbert… although you know… I do not want to scare you…it is a pretty frightening story…”

 

“…hE..is…vERY…grown…fATHER…” Magmus tried to help.

 

Afi looked confused.

 

Fiametta grabbed Magmus.

 

“…go along with it…he needs to keep talking!...”

 

“…um-um…well…dad…how am I ever gonna be like mom and join…join…join the guard if I do…not know…the story…?” Grillby remembered he had wanted to join the guard as a kid.

 

“…oh hOO hoo…well then…I suppose yOU are old enough…You know…I was not from the same grOUp as Asgore…we were from a very far away place…but my Grandfather…he was an ambassador to their country…”

 

Grillby was happy to see a few bubbles try to pop up at the memory.

 

Sans closed his eyes and concentrated. He motioned for everyone to move into the car. Fiametta led Afi inside the vehicle, and sat next to him while the others shuffled inside.

 

“…and it came to be… that we travelled to Asgore’s lands as a family…it was so cold… winter they called it…it was the first time I saw snow…I saw a lot of little monsters and humans playing in it… I ran out…got wet of course…a little human girl helped warm me up…let me stand in her fire place…”

 

Sans took one more swig of ketchup. His magic could not go any higher.

 

“…uh..UH a HUMAN… aren’t those terrifying dAD…?” Magmus was playing along.

 

Afi smiled.

 

“…Ohh hoo hoo…no not at all…well…some humans…but not most…not her…she was even smaller than you Magmus…you tiny little sunspot you… hOO hOO hoo…”

 

Magmus poked his rather rotund stomach, if only that had stayed the same.

 

Afi continued,

 

“…Naturally we became close friends over the years…which became a problem once monsters and humans started to fight…I was a young monster…no threat, but her father did not like me one bit… a year before the war broke out he attacked me with a pitchfork…she tried to get him to stop… to calm him down…but I had to melt the pitchfork when they raised it at her…I stopped him!”

 

“ok, everyone hold on tight.” Sans was ready.

 

“…wHO…is that?...sOME skeleton?” Afi raised an arm-his hand started to turn to ash. It was fading fast.

 

“…Where are we?...”

 

Sans closed his eyes. He wanted to get Grillby’s help, but if he said anything else, Afi might turn to dust. Ok, he just had to hope. Ok, he just needed a minute to concentrate.

 

Fiametta held Afi and glanced at Sans, she hoped he could do it.

 

“…W-wow a whole pitchfork…?” Fiametta tried to keep the charade up. Afi needed to keep talking!

 

“…she lived with us... for a while… then one day she went missing…the next day…”

 

“… I found her body burned at a stake…with other humans sympathetic to monsters…and well…the war…happened… Asgore ordered me to…burn the village down…after they dusted my mother and grandfather… and her...so… I burned it all…her ash…their ash…everything was ashes…and now... for nothing…”

 

Afi stared at his hand… a finger dusted off onto the car seat. He looked like he wanted to cry but had no magma for tears.

 

“…Dear…” Fiametta was not sure if it would have been better to let him stay quiet. She hugged him as a second finger turned to ash.

 

Grillby held back his own tears.

 

Sans wanted to let him have a moment, but they needed to hurry. 

 

“grillby- open your door now!”

 

Sans blurted the words out and hopped into Grilby’s arms before closing his eyes.

 

“…WHY?...”

 

“now!”

 

Grillby opened the door.

 

Sans short cutted the whole car onto a ledge of a Hotland lava pool by his old hot dog stand. Sans slumped over as the car delicately balanced on the edge. Grillby grabbed Sans under his arms and jumped out, managing to make it to the platform before the car fell into the lava with a great sloppy splash.

 

After Grillby leapt out with Sans, Grillby watched as his Honda Civic slowly slipped deeper into lava with a hissing noise. Magmus and Fiametta swam out of the car, Fiametta holding Afi. Magmus tried to lift Grillby’s car out of the lava, but the molten rock had already begun to pour in through the open windows and door. Grillby shrugged, he did not care about the car at the moment- he turned to his father.

 

Afi’s body lit up. The charcoal covered shape of a man turned a bright red, and waves of lava rolled out and shifted over him. Afi opened his eyes. His head bubbled.

 

After the world's longest moment Afi spoke up,

 

“…I…wAS…fALLING?... after the rAIN?”

 

Fiametta nodded her head, molten tears streaming down her face. She kissed Afi and he hugged her back.

 

“…hOO HOO HOO… nO littlE raindrOP can cAUSE the greAT Afi to fALL…” Afi paused.

 

“…wait…weren’t wE On the surfACe?...

 

“…Sans…used his magic…” Grillby was holding the passed out Sans.

 

Sans was still out cold.

 

 

**************************************************************************


	35. In which we meet a cat monster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans gets the help he needs, and Papyrus visits Nile's house.

Fiametta, Afi’s doctor (a vulcan who went by Susan), and their assistant (a large fiery lizard faced she-demon named Feuretina) were having trouble keeping Afi from leaving the lava pool.

 

“Mr. Dhosi, we know you want to leave the lava pit, but we need to finish running tests to make sure you can leave!”

 

The vulcin squeaked at Afi adorably, while hitting him with healing magma. Her assistant tried to jot down notes on Afi’s vitals.

 

“…I…kEEP…telling yOU….I was fallING because I had a war flashback…aND from the rAIN…but there is nO mORE rAIN…and I am fINE…”

 

“ **THERE, THERE MR. DHOSI, WE KNOW, BUT WE NEED TO DO THIS TO BE SAFE. WILL GET YOU OUT SOON, JUST LET US RUN A FEW LITTLE TESTS AND YOU CAN GET OUT. JUST RELAX.”**

The Demon gently put a clawed hand on Afi’s shoulder before not so gently sticking special thermometer into his arm.

 

“But…I…nEED to hELP sANs…hE is the ONE who prevented me…from dUSTING.” Afi sighed.

 

 

" **BUT IF YOU TURN TO ASH BEFORE YOU CAN THANK HIM, HOW WILL THAT HELP? WE HAVE A NECROTIC SPECIALIST WITH HIM RIGHT NOW. NOW JUST STAY STILL SO WE CAN GET YOUR VITALS.”**

Feuretina firmly gripped Afi’s shoulder. Afi sighed as Susan stuck a second magical rod into his arm and took his viscosity.

Fiametta gently petted Afi’s head.

 

“…It is ok…dear…the Doctor said Sans will…be fine…they are took him to the capitol…”

 

 

***************************************************************************

 

A large pale Ghoul examined Sans in the hospital bed. Grillby tried to hold Sans hand, but the Ghoul pushed him back and examined the small skeleton.

 

“You need to stay back, for all I know he is overheated from being so close to a lava pool! Just stand back a bit… maybe a bit more.”

 

Grillby looked very sad, flame flickering, and backed up to the wall.

 

He wanted to help. But there was nothing he could do. What if he had made it worse? What if he was overheating Sans?

 

Grillby’s flames flickered rapidly.

 

The doctor glared at Grillby,

 

“And try and stop with the fire a bit more, ok?”

 

Grillby looked like he was going to cry. He managed to lower his flames, but they would not stop rapidly flickering.

 

The doctor nodded, and then proceeded to scan Sans.

 

Magmus stayed a step from the edge of the bed and glared at the Doctor, his magma turning a bright yellow. The room was a bit warmer.

 

The ghoul noticed that,

 

“OK, elementals- you can relax. No need to get hotheaded, his HP is fine, well fine for him, at four and a half. He just needs a simple magic donation.”

 

“…Oh!...I can donate some…!”

 

The doctor sighed at Grillby, his dead white eyes rolled.

 

“Are you his spouse or kin?”

 

“…Um…No…well technically we did kind of get-”

 

The ghoul interrupted him.

 

“Do you have blue gravity magic with an icy aura?”

 

Grillby did not respond to that.

 

“Well, for his best chance of recovery we need to match him with someone whose magic he trusts or with magic that is as close as possible.”

 

“…He trusts my magic!...”

 

“If you can not relax, elemental, I will have you wait outside.”

 

Magmus turned to the doctor, the cracks in his head breccia opening up to form glowing yellow eyes which were shaped to glare pointedly.

 

“…thERE is nO nEED fOR THAT tONe….perhaps wE should all relax in this situATION GhoUL?”

 

The doctor turned their head sideways and talked to Magmus like one would talk to a child.

 

 

“I cannot understand your accent, but you definitely cannot donate your magic either, sorry, big guy.”

 

Magmus wanted to blast through the door and give this guy’s supervisor a piece of his mind, but he knew Grillby just wanted to get Sans help as quickly as possible. With a pleading face from Grillby, Magmus instead formed into a more humanoid shape, backed up, and let out a sigh.

 

“Look, you two, you need to understand I do not want your magic going anywhere near him. His body will try to leech magic off of anyone too close. He is in a stable state now. The important thing is to find a good match from another similar monster. If the magic is rejected, even in the slightest, he could lose HP, something he cannot afford to lose more than three of. Thus, unless you start learning to throw bone attacks, I would like it if you keep away.”

 

“How…can…you be so close then?”

 

“I do not have any magic. Not even bone attacks or ghoul slime.” The Doctor stated this fact rather proudly.

 

 

“Well…I can call his brother…”

 

 

“Yes, you do that. I will search the database for the closest monster match.”

 

 

Grillby called Papyrus, normally the phone would pick up after half a ring, but there wasn’t even a ring. Grillby looked at his phone. It didn’t seem to be working.

 

The doctor did not seem to have much luck, the database searched and searched. For the blue gravity magic and bone attacks the brother came up, and then four other skeletons, three mummies, a few ghouls, and a baby zombie.

 

For the teleportation a few ghosts came up, several vampires, as did a cat monster, a few whimsum, a banshee, and oddly one very special moldsmall but none of them had blue magic.

 

The screen went black for a second. Stupid cheap computer was falling apart. The doctor wiggled the screen until it re-lit.

 

Oh, the search seemed to have updated, a new match was displayed.

 

A perfect match.

 

“All right, I have actually found a match better than his brother. His name is ------“

 

“…What was that?”

 

“His name is ------. NO, I said G—t-r! OK, the point is he is a ghast with similar high levels of blue gravity magic, he can even summon the cannon things, too. Let me just call the number.

 

The doctor tried to use the hospital phone. It didn’t work.

 

“Darn thing is busted, I swear ever since Asgore left the funding has been down the drain. Let me try the hall phone.”

 

The Doctor exited the room. They heard his voice on the other side of the door,

 

“Hello, Dr. W-. Dr. ------. Um Doctor. My name is Doctor Glur and I am calling from the hospital wondering if can you give a magic donation to a young skeleton Sans who-”

 

*##*##*

 

Suddenly Grillby felt his stomach lurch and his senses dull. It was like his flame was burning through wool.

 

Grillby and Magmus heard a weird chiming noise. The room went oddly quiet, the sounds of the hallway falling silently, even the Doctor’s voice seemed to cut out.

 

Magmus looked at his half brother, and before the pair could blink, a figure just appeared in the room, a grey dull cat monster with a creepy smile wearing an equally lifeless grey business suit. Their eyes were a black void.

 

The figure ignored Grillby and Magmus and sat next to Sans.

 

They spoke,

 

* **Remember, one day he vanished without a trace.**

 

* **Shattered across time and space.**

*** Ha Ha ha.**

*** Be careful Sans, or you will meet your end faster.**

*** Just like brilliant old W.D-“**

The cat monster was cut off. Their smile turned into an excited gasp. The monster began to fade, with one hand opening to reveal a small white mask. The cat man disappeared completely with a creepy musical chime.

 

The room turned a bright white, and the mask lit up. Horrible music started to play.

 

A Ghast, with a broken white face and a black robe materialized. He looked just like the man from Sans’ memory.

 

“…Are…yo0…o0ooOo …” Grillby had to go into fire speak. Words could not come out of his mouth.

 

Magmus was trying to say something, too, but Grillby could only hear bubbles.

 

The monster turned to Grillby, slowly his weird black mouth curved upwards and a little white light flashed in his eye.

 

“ ~~ *** _69_ & _M >_ _M()69_ [_] _M >_  I_I / _^_  ** ** <> _69_ []<>** ~~”

 

Grillby had a hard time understanding the accent, but the symbols seemed to stick in his mind. The monster moved a skeletal hand out towards Grillby, who in return nervously moved his hand out to shake it. The second Grillby’s flame touched his hand, the monster short cutted to Sans’s side, peering his long face over him.

 

The ghast frowned and his broken smile flipped downward. He moved his skeletal hands, which Grillby noticed were missing a few chunks, to Sans’ chest. Gaster tried to touch Sans, but this caused the monster to disappear-and reappear! Frustrated, Gaster again moved his hands as close as he could to Sans chest, just a fraction of a hair away from contact. Blue magic gathered in the hand holes and shot into Sans chest, to his soul.

 

Sans’ eye filled with light again. The two locked eyes for a second.

 

“ ~~ **#Pt _69_ [_] _M >_  o)(& _M >_   _69_   U **I_I **[]   ^ ** **I_I   @ _M >_**********~~ ”

 

"You are a son to me"

 

Sans beamed and reached out, but the man was gone with the eerie musical chime. The white light faded and sound re-entered the room.

 

Grillby felt as though he had been in a dream and been woken up with a bang.

 

“…SANS…ARE YOU OK?...”

 

Grillby immediately ran up to Sans and hugged him, Sans limply hugged back.

 

Their moment was cut short as the doctor came in, and sighed.

 

“Did you seriously donate magic to him!”

 

“…No… a ghast came in and did it while you were out…”

 

The Doctor let out an annoyed sigh.

 

“Oh wow, I could not understand his accent, but I guess he meant he would be over soon. Holy Zhurg. Ghasts- I swear.”

 

The Doctor pushed past Grillby for a second time and took Sans vitals, before checking him as good to go. Sans magic was topped full.

 

*********************************************************************************

 

Magmus, Sans, and Grillby made it to the lobby, Magmus had insisted on paying for the bill, since Sans had risked his life to save Afi.

 

“i am happy to hear afi is ok.” Sans was talking in a whisper, but seemed to be ok otherwise.

 

“…Thanks to you!...He was just getting a final check-up while we were gone….I was more worried about you…the doctor would not let me donate magic… and my phone glitched out…I could not get Papyrus…luckily the Doctor had Gaster’s number…”

 

Grillby held Sans, his flames finally coming back to a normal state. Sans leaned into him,

 

“i cannot believe that worked. the guy is scattered across space and time, and he still finds a way to help out. “

 

Sans could not help it, he snickered a bit.

 

Magmus looked less at peace with the situation, he was bubbling all over.

 

“…sO..sANS…wEre thOSe grEY telepORting mONsters…um….the cat…and the ghast…relATives?”

 

“they are dear old friends and colleagues, i consider gaster like a father to me.” Sans smiled.

 

“…uM…they hAVE…a...dARK…AURa…”

 

“well, gaster is a powerful ghast, so yeah he is going to be a bit creepy. and well, let’s just say that i should probably slow down from the short cuts for a bit, or well, i might end up like poor whiskers. but they were…not they are good monsters, they supported me as a kid, and they taught me how to control the short cuts better.”

 

Magmus looked thoughtful for a second.

 

“…wELL…in that cASE…I should thank them tOO…nEXT time… we see them.”

 

“Now lOOk…I am goING to have a word with the help desk aBOUT…that awful dOCTOR…and then visit fATHer. dO noT wait fOR me, I hAVE a lOT to sAy to thEM…”

 

Magmus put a goopy hand to his head and walked to the help desk, sporting rock-splitting headache.

 

Grillby and Sans walked outside, Sans leaned on Grillby, despite being topped up on magic, he felt drained.

 

“…Sans…are you ok…?”

 

“i’m pretty sapped grillbz. i don’t think i should use much magic for a few days.”

 

“…A few days!...maybe more like a month!... you short cutted me, my family, and a car…about eight hundred freaking miles!... We are going to get you home…and then I am going to make your food…and you can relax…”

 

“grillbz. i’m fine.”

 

Grillby leaned away from Sans. Sans lost balance.

 

Point taken.

 

Grillby scooped Sans up bridal style to Sans amusement.

 

“ok, you can be my knight-knight in shining armor today. honestly have i ever told you how i feel after i short cut?”

 

“…what is it like…?” Grillby kept carrying Sans.

 

“it feels like i ran the distance in reverse. for a few seconds i am very exhausted like i just finished a race, but after a bit, i feel excited, like the race just started and my adrenalines pumping.”

 

Sans smiled as Grillby kept carrying him,

 

“it is like little bits of me are left behind between the two spots, and there is part of me left in between running and trying to catch up to where i am now. the missing bits always come back, but when i first jump, heh heh, you could say i am _running on empty_.”

 

“…Sans…that magic sounds…dangerous… and not at all funny…”

 

“no, no its fine, as long as you don’t do it constantly. ideally, you should wait a bit between jumps. well, if you don’t you can start to fade, that what has happened to whiskers, they short cut around so much chasing bits of gaster’s soul…they’ve gone a bit… grey…faded from pieces that have not caught up. but if you are smart about it you’ll be fine. gaster used to do it all the time in the stupidest places.”

 

Sans looked down.

 

“…Sans…are you ok…I can tell you miss them…”

 

 

“it is weird, grillbz, i want to search after him, but i know he wouldn’t want me to.”

 

 

“…he seemed nice…he tried to say something to me…but I did not understand his accent…”

 

 

“yeah, he’s got a funny one, and that’s saying a lot coming from me. did you see a bunch of shapes?”

 

 

“…some human religious symbols and random shapes, yes…here let me write it down…”

 

Grillby pulled a notepad out of his pants pocket, which Sans recognized as a notepad that the elemental usually used for writing tabs. Thank Asgore he had paid his off, just looking at the notepad made him nervous.

 

Grillby wrote down what he remembered, it was still oddly clear in his mind,

 

“….Ok here we go: snowflake, pisces, at, scorpio….”

 

“take”

 

“…virgo, pisces, cube, scorpio…”

 

“cane-no care-i always mix up the cube and the square”

 

 

“…empty square, male symbol…”

 

“of”

 

“…diamond, pisces, filled square, diamond…”

 

“oh, huh.”

 

“…take care of ‘oh, huh’”

 

 

Sans blushed.

 

 

“take care of sans. which you are doing pretty well carrying me, i could get used to this.”

 

 

“…Well, considering you shouldn’t teleport, and my car is now mostly melted aluminum…you may have to.”

 

Sans cringed,

 

“sorry about the car, i was hoping if it was on the ledge that maybe it would not melt.”

 

“…Sans…you miraculously saved my father… never mind the fact that you somehow calculated the car to be on the ledge…. besides I have car insurance, so perhaps this will be covered…I purchased the optional lava damage plan…if you are up for it, we should go back to the pit to try and get the car out and visit dad…”

 

Sans and Grillby made it back to Hotland to both receive a very oozey hug from a happy Afi. They talked for a half hour, before Grillby insisted on carrying Sans home.

 

 

*************************************************************************

 

It was 2:00 PM and Papyrus finished his shift. He was worried to the point that he was not making little ketchup designs on the plates anymore, since he hadn’t heard from Nile all afternoon, despite sending many texts.

 

His phone buzzed.

 

It was a text!

 

**HELLO, PI THIS IS NILE.**

Papyrus sis not need the identifier-he had definitely already marked Nile’s number, and given it a photo, and a special ringtone…

 

**_THINGS SEEM TO BE…STABLE NOW. MY MOTHER STORMED OUT FOR A FEW HOURS, AT WHICH POINT I SHOULD PROBABLY NOT BE IN THE HOUSE? WOULD YOU BE WILLING TO HELP ME MOVE A FEW THINGS? MY FATHER IS HOME, BUT HE SHOULD BE FINE. I UNDERSTAND IF YOU WANT TO STAY AWAY, THOUGH._ **

 

Before Papyrus could stop himself, he texted back.

 

**NO PROBLEM, I AM HERE TO HELP! BE THERE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!**

Papyrus all but threw his work uniform off and ran out. Zostra, Doggo, and LD, gave him a wave for good luck.

 

 

**********************************************************************************

 

Past the Underground entrance, Papyrus ran down increasingly twisted cobblestone side streets in the outskirts of the Capitol City. The location seemed to be the farthest possible point away from both Hotland and the Palace. He had never been to Little Necropolis before, or at least did not remember being anywhere quite this decrepit.

 

Papyrus frowned; everything was either in a state of dusty disrepair or creepy looking. Many of the houses were shaped like ghosts or coffins or tombstones or worse, and if a building was not in a state of dilapidation it was doing something creepy like wailing or moaning.

 

That being said, that skull shaped house with a pirate motif was pretty amazing looking.

 

Papyrus walked up to the address Nile had given him. It was an older house made with yellow sandstone, two stories, and with boarded up windows. It looks like at some point someone had tried to wrap its two front pillars in bandages, but the bandages were now faded and partly unwound.

 

Papyrus gathered his courage and knocked on the door. After a few knocks he heard someone run down a set of steps. Nile opened the door and swept him into a tiny coatroom with some stairs leading upwards.

 

_“S-SORRY, PY, THE HOUSE IS A L-LITTLE MESSY OUTSIDE. UM… IT’S THE S-STUPID NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION,”_

“HUH?”

 

 _“OH, E-EVERYTHING HAS TO LOOK ‘SPOOKY’. T- THEY ARE SUPER STRICT ABOUT IT, TOO. THE G-GHOSTS DOWN THE STREET TRIED TO PLANT FLOWERS LAST YEAR AND GOT-GOT AN ORDINANCE TO TAKE IT D-DOWN.”_ Nile stuttered.

Papyrus took a look at Nile. She had put fresh face bandages on under her eyes, and her voice sounded a bit shaky. He looked more closely. She had a lot of fresh bandages all over and she looked like she had been rushing around.

 

“NILE, ARE YOU OK?”

 

_“NOT REALLY. BUT IT WOULD BE BEST IF I TOLD YOU LATER…I JUST NEED TO DO THIS.”_

She leaned to Papyrus and gave him a hug, where Papyrus tried to hold her as gently as he could, he had a bad feeling about the bandages.

“OK, WELL IF YOU ARE READY, I CAN HELP YOU LEAVE.”

 

Nile nodded her head yes. Her eyes glowed green, and her face was filled with determination. She already had one suitcase in her hand and was wearing her necklace of the hourglass. Papyrus noticed that the sand inside the necklace seemed to move constantly up and down within the glass shape.

 

“ _SO, I THINK I DO NOT EXACTLY HAVE TIME TO GRAB EVERYTHING, BUT I CAN GET THE STUFF I CARE ABOUT. I ALREADY HAVE MY LOOT POUCH AND CLOTHES PACKED IN HERE.”_

Nile pointed to her rather small suitcase, and started upstairs, Papyrus followed.

 

It was a small room that looked like it would normally be neat. It perhaps wasn’t so neat because it was in a state of being packed up and because there were several holes and bones stuck in the wall.

 

From what Papyrus could tell- they were bone attacks. Between the holes were a collection of tacks and pins, and what looked like the remains of masks, including an Anubis mask that looked better than the one Papyrus and Lesser Dog had made, despite the fact that it was pinned to the wall with a femur.

 

Next to the wall there was what looked like many masks thrown into a trashcan.

Nile immediately tried to grab the femur to try to get the remaining mask off the wall.

 

“UH HERE.”

 

Papyrus used his gravity magic to pull the bone down, and out of the wall.

 

Nile looked at Papyrus as he moved the bone.

 

‘UM, I CAN NOT USE MAGIC, IF YOU WANT.”

 

_“NO, THAT TYPE OF MAGIC IS NICE, IT LOOKS USEFUL.”_

Nile had seen Papyrus move little shell gates at the beach and had been meaning to ask about it.

“UM, IT CAN BE, IT IS NOT LIKE MY BROTHERS, HE CAN GO IN EVERY DIRECTION, I CAN ONLY GO DOWN.”

 

_“ANYTHING BUT BONE ATTACKS, RIGHT NOW.”_

Papyrus looked at Nile. He looked at the femur, and then he looked at Nile’s new bandages. Nile looked upset, so he did not say anything. Instead he tossed the femur into the bottom of the trash bin, and walked up to Nile, giving her another gentle hug.

“SO, UH, THOSE ARE A LOT OF MASKS…”

 

Nile nodded.

 

_“YES. I CARVED THEM MYSELF. BUT UM… I THINK I HAVE TO LEAVE THEM. ASIDE FROM THE FACT THAT MOST ARE ON THE DESTROYED SIDE, MY MOM PUT CURSES ON MOST OF THE REMAINING FINISHED ONES.”_

Papyrus carefully peered into the bin. One of the masks had glowing red eyes. Another seemed to have feathers that were moving, and a third was hissing.

 

They all looked hand carved, with lots of intricate details, although most were smashed. He carefully picked up one that was not twitching or glowing, an unfinished mask with an owl design half carved and held it. The woodwork was really impressive.

 

“THIS ONE IS REALLY NICE, WE CAN SAVE IT IF YOU WANT?”

 

Papyrus did not want Nile to feel like she had to give up the hobby, but it was at this moment that the bandages on Papyrus’ face started to act up again-one hit him in the face.

 

Nile winced.

 

_“I-I THINK THERE ARE OTHER THINGS I WOULD RATHER KEEP.”_

Nile took the owl mask from Papyrus and tossed it back in the bin.

Aside from the destroyed wall, there was what looked like a bookshelf full of puzzle design manuals and textbooks with an instrument case leaned up against the bookshelf. She also had a dresser with a few handmade woodcarvings of not super accurate surface animals and a board game that Papyrus did not recognize.

 

Papyrus noticed Nile was still sad.

 

“WELL, MAYBE YOU ALSO LIKE FIGURINGE MAKING? YOU COULD CARVE IT AND I COULD PAINT IT? UM, I DO NOT THINK I GOT TO SHOW YOU THE FIGURINES I’VE PAINTED, BUT I AM PRETTY GOOD AT IT!”

 

_“OH REALLY! MAYBE YOU COULD GIVE THESE THREE A COAT, THEY ARE MY FAVORITES!”_

Nile smiled and picked up the wooden figures from her dresser, a snake with a human face, a rabbit with fangs, and a cat she had given two tails. They were kind of plain, and would probably look good with paint.

To Nile’s horror the snake figurine let out a smoke when Papyrus touched it, the rabbit burst into flames, and the tiny cat figurine glowed red and sprung to life when she handed it to Papyrus.

_“IS THERE ANYTHING THAT MY MOTHER HAS NOT CURSED IN THIS ROOM?”_

 

The tiny cat figurine nibbled on one of his fingers with its little wooden mouth. Papyrus put it on the table and moved his finger around. The cat chased it.

 

“THIS IS KIND OF AN ADORABLE CURSE. CAN WE KEEP JUST THIS ONE?”

Nile couldn’t help but laugh a little bit.

 

_“OK SURE. BUT IF IT SO MUCH AS TAKES A HP OFF OF YOU, IT GOES IN THE BIN.”_

The little cat suddenly stiffened up again.

 

Nile got out a second suitcase and sighed, gently placing the cat figurine and her woodcarving tools in it. She sadly tossed the rabbit and snake into the bin.

 

What was left?

 

_“IS IT OK IF I BRING MY FLUTES?”_

“YOU PLAY THE FLUTE!

 

_“I PLAY THE NEY AND KAWALA. THEY ARE TRADITIONAL EGYPTIAN INSTRUMENTS. HERE!”_

Nile carefully opened up the instrument case. There were two very old looking wooden reed flutes, one short with six holes, and another longer one.

 

_“DO YOU PLAY?”_

Papyrus shook his head.

 

“I, UM…DO NOT HAVE A MUSICAL BONE IN MY BODY, ALTHOUGH MY BROTHER SANS, IS ACTUALLY REALLY GOOD AT TROMBONE. BUT I’D LOVE TO LEARN SOMEDAY!”

 

_“HEH HEH. WELL HOW ABOUT TODAY? MAYBE I CAN TEACH YOU? LOOK THIS IS HOW YOU HOLD THE NEY, AND THEN YOU JUST BLOW AT THE TOP.”_

Papyrus tried not to blush as Nile wrapped held his hands and placed his fingers on the flute. It seemed really delicate.

 

_“COME ON, GIVE IT A NICE GENTLE BREATH.”_

Papyrus tried his best, but a loud earsplitting whine came out of the flute.

 

“NYEH HEH HEH…. UM MAYBE IT MIGHT BE A BIT HARD FOR ME.”

 

_“OH, DO NOT WORRY, I HAD THE SAME PROBLEM! IT IS JUST ABOUT CONTROLLING YOUR BREATH BETTER. MAYBE WE CAN GET YOU A PLASTIC ONE ON THE SURFACE?”_

Nile took the Ney and played a short piece. Papyrus smiled, it was really nice. A muffled noise was heard downstairs. And then a crash of what sounded like metal pieces? Nile sighed.

 

_“WELL, WE SHOULD REALLY GET FINISHED. I WILL BRING THESE, THE CAT FIGURE, AND SOME BOOKS, OH AND IF YOU WANT I CAN BRING THIS BOARD GAME, SENET, I THINK YOU WOULD LIKE IT! OH AND YOU LIKE PUZZLES, TOO WANT TO HELP PICK SOME BOOKS?”_

 

Papyrus had to admit; her puzzle books were pretty advanced. She also had several books on architecture that he could probably learn a thing or two from. After re arranging the suitcase so that the flutes were carried separately, and moving the cat figurine and the small board game into the suitcase with the clothes, they were able to fit about twelve large books.

 

 

_“OK, LAST BOOK, ADVANCED GATE PUZZLES, OR SLIDING ICE BLOCK ARCHITECHTURE?”_

Ooh that was a tough one. Papyrus needed to get better with gates, but there was a special spot in his soul for ice puzzles.

 

 

“THEY BOTH SOUND SO GOOD! WHY DON’T YOU LET ME CARRY THE SUITCASES, AND YOU CAN CARRY THE EXTRA BOOK AND FLUTES?”

 

_“BUT THAT’S UNFAIR, LET ME CARRY ONE OF THE SUITCASES AT LEAST.”_

“OK, BUT THE ONE WITH CLOTHES IS PRETTY LIGHT ANYWAY.”

 

 

_“WELL, LETS JUST SAY I AM NOT BRINGING ANY LARGE BURIAL GARMENTS. WHICH IS MOST OF MY WARDROBE”_

“NEH HEH, OK, BUT I STILL SAY YOU LOOKED GREAT.”

 

 

_“I DO NOT KNOW, I THINK I LOOKED BETTER WITHOUT IT.”_

The two blushed, Nile moved towards Papyrus and stroked his chin. She gave him a skeletal kiss-and for a few moments they forgot where they were.

 

They heard a thud downstairs.

 

**************************************************************

_“AH, I SHOULD SAY GOODBYE TO FATHER. WOULD YOU LIKE TO MEET HIM? I WOULD INTRODUCE YOU TO MY BROTHERS, TOO, BUT THEY ARE OUT.”_

“SURE!”

 

Nile’s Dad had been so quiet, that Papyrus forgot he was even home.

 

_“MY DAD WAS A CARPENTER. HE TAUGHT ME HOW TO CARVE THINGS, AND GOT ME INTERESTED IN ARCHITECTURE AND PUZZLE BUILDING. HE IS RETIRED NOW, THOUGH, DUE TO HIS CONDITION, MY BROTHERS TOOK OVER THE BUSINESS.”_

Nile and Papyrus carried the suitcases downstairs and put them by the door. She led him past a very nice tiled kitchen and another bedroom to what looked like a treasure hoard.

 

Stacked gold coins covered what looked like a table, bookshelves, and large sections of floor. Next to the table were large empty vases and piles of loose gold coins. An older looking Mummy man moved a few gold pieces into the top of a large vase, and then, satisfied, moved the vase to a corner with other filled vases. He then resumed tallying and stacking loose gold coins into a pile.

 

 

The Mummy man’s hands shook as he picked up each coin. Most of his bandages looked fresh, but around his face some were so old that they were turning yellow and peeling off. A few had in fact fallen off of his face, revealing a mostly skeletal head. The mummy did not notice them enter the room.

 

Nile smiled and held Papyrus’ arm.

 

_“HEY FATHER, THIS IS PAPYRUS, THE SKELETON I AM GOING TO MOVE IN WITH. PAPYRUS, THIS IS MY FATHER, SOBEK.”_

“Oh. Ammit, what now?” Sobek’s eyes did not look up from the coins.

 

_“DAD, IT IS NILE. REMEMBER HOW I TOLD YOU I WAS MOVING OUT THIS MORNING TO GO TO THE SURFACE?”_

 

“Oh, Nile. Sorry about that, you sound so much like your mother. So what is going on?”

 

_“UM, SO…I AM GOING TO THE SURFACE AND PAPYRUS IS GOING TO UH HELP ME FIND AN APARTMENT. PAPYRUS IS MY BOYFRIEND.”_

Sobek looked like he was fighting to lift his head up to look at Papyrus, a feint yellow glow entered one eye for a second.

 

“IT IS A PLEASURE TO MEET YOU!”

 

Papyrus really hoped he could make a good impression with at least one member of Nile’s family.

 

Sobek strained a bit. He grasped a gold coin in his hand, and clenched it in his fist. He jerked his head upwards, and straightened his back. He was, surprisingly tall- at least as tall as Mettaton Neo’s form. His eyes kept glowing yellow, but Papyrus had a feeling that it was not because he wanted to fight.

 

Sobek’s head tilted to the side, and something rolled inside it. He looked confused.

 

“Oh Hello, Horus.”

 

_“NO, PAPYRUS.”_

“Papyrus huh,”

 

Sobek tilted his head again, the other direction. This time Papyrus saw the coin inside his skull roll as his head turned.

 

“That is an unusual name for a skeleton. Or are you a skeleton? How old are you?”

 

“UM, I AM A SKELETON, BUT MY DAD WAS HALF MUMMY, BUT I UM, DON’T REALLY KNOW HIM. OH AND I AM TWENTY TWO.”

 

“Well, Horus, er, Papyrus. Can I call you Rus maybe? Rus, I am pretty impressed.”

 

Papyrus figured Rus was closer than Horus.

 

“Whatever you are, you must be pretty strong for a skeleton to only be left with a little face mask after one of my wife’s curses,”

 

Sobek’s eye flashed again briefly and his head tilted again. Papyrus felt his soul shift, like how Toriel had made it feel.

 

“Well, well, Rus, you break 600 HP! Kindness, Perseverance, and Bravery, huh? You seem pretty strong, too, very tall, and handsome? And your fight dialogue is very polite; I can see why my daughter likes you. Her father is a big good-looking gentleman-mummy after all. Ha hah!”

 

Sobek tried to flex an arm and smile. The smile revealed an entire top chunk of missing teeth from incisor to molar. He could not hold the pose for long though, his arm shook as it moved farther from the gold pile, and after some straining slammed back into the pile with a crash of coins.

 

“Ah typical,”

 

As the coins scattered Sobek was fighting not to look down at them. His hand started to pile the coins again.

 

“I am sorry it has come to this, by the way, to both of you.”

 

Sobek looked at Nile’s freshly bandaged arms and frowned.

 

“Nile I am sorry that I could never help more.”

 

Sobek’s head tilted back and forth, he was really fighting the urge not to look down.

 

“Here, take some gold with you for a new place.”

 

Sobek managed to pull a leather pouch out of his pocket, and push some coins into it. His hand pushed it to Nile quickly. She picked it up, and his hand tried to swipe the area as the bag left the table.

 

His gaze was finally fixated downwards again, his head jerked downwards painfully.

 

“Heh. Tomb curse is a killer. Please take it though. If I could bear to give it all away I would. Haha. Papyrus, by now you’ve figured out this family is plagued by curses. Heh, did you notice my teeth- that was from my Ammit. She cursed a biscuit after a fight we had. Ah Ammit…Ammit dearest, well she…she is not so bad? She is just a bit overprotective? She did not use to be so against magic.”

 

Sobek sighed,

 

“She got really religious, once my, um, condition started. Then it was Zhurg this, Zhurg that. No more magic in the house, except bloody curses. Maybe once this blows over you can both move in?”

 

Sobek’s eyes glinted.

 

“Heh, maybe not knowing Ammit.”

 

Sobek could not fight the urge to look at the coins his gaze was fixed.

 

_“I WILL MISS YOU DAD, BUT ONCE THIS BLOWS OVER A BIT, I PROMISE TO AT LEAST VISIT AGAIN.”_

Nile looked sorrowfully at her father.

“AND, IF YOU CAN, YOU ARE WELCOME TO VISIT.”

 

Nile caught Papyrus’ eye and she smiled at him.

 

“If I can I will. Perhaps I can get one of your brothers to take me to visit you.”

 

Nile ran up to Sobek and gave him a hug. Sobek tried to hug her back, but his arm would not lift.

 

“All right, you two love birds take care and get out of here before my wife gets back. It was nice to meet you Rus, take care of my little tomb flower. And Nile, if he gives you any trouble, well I suppose you know a few curses. Haha.”

 

 

Papyrus and Nile left the apartment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like at least one person will be excited for the character we met today. I am writing up a storm, and hope to have another chapter tonight :D


	36. Chapter 36

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Papyrus and Nile finish moving Nile in. A distacted Grillby manages to make a cake without setting the house on fire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late-ish update, hopefully the extra thousand words makes up for it? I took a whole weekend off of science to go to Otakon and had a blast- but also caught some form of illness. 
> 
> Here is some more Papyrus/Nile ( a bit saucy again) and the start of some fluffy Sans and Grillby chapters.

Papyrus and Nile were sitting on Papyrus’ race car bed. After, of course, making spaghetti and getting lost in a puzzle book for several hours together, the two were finally unpacking.

 

Papyrus normally would take Saturday afternoon to clean the house, but while with Nile, he found himself letting it wait. Sans was not going to be home for a few days anyway, not that Sans would even care if the house was messy.

 

With a concerted effort the pair had managed to fit the suitcase worth of books onto the bookshelf, although Papyrus had been forced to move a few books of the lesser-read books into the closet (Fluffy Bunny, fortunately, retained its prime location on the shelf). They had also set up Nile’s flutes, board game, and cursed cat figurine on or next to Papyrus’ desk. Said cursed cat figurine was wreaking havoc in an epic battle against Papyrus’ action figures on the table.

 

Nile winced as the little thing tried to chew up a Mettaton figure and rescued it.

 

“OH, NYEH HEH, THANKS, I AM A PRETTY BIG METTATON FAN. HE IS SO SE-” Papyrus stopped and blushed a bit.

 

_“I THINK HE IS GORGEOUS! DO YOU LIKE HIM?”_

“UM, I HAVE A BIT OF A CELEBRITY CRUSH ON HIM. BUT FEAR NOT, METTATON HAS NOTHING ON YOU!”

 

Papyrus leaned in and nuzzled into Nile.

 

_“HEH HEH, HE BETTER NOT! AND I LIKE YOU MORE THAN METTATON, YOU ARE SO STRONG.”_

Papyrus flexed a skeletal arm.

Nile poked Papyrus’ humerus in the same way that Papyrus had seen Grillby poke Sans’ nasal cavity.  

 

She gave him a quick squeeze, and he felt little butterflies flutter through his bones. Wowie. He understood why they did that now.

 

Nile reached the bottom of her suitcase, so they were almost done unpacking. The only thing that was left to find a home for was a bag of makeup and some rubber bands.

 

“OH WOW, WHAT ARE ALL THESE TINY RUBBER BANDS FOR?”

 

Papyrus proceeded to get two finger bones stuck inside one instantly. He tried to elegantly get his fingers out, but Nile had to help him. The band snapped, and Papyrus looked apologetic.

 

_“OH, DO NOT WORRY, THEY SNAP ALL THE TIME. I HAVE THEM SO I CAN BRAID MY HAIR. IT IS ONLY ON ONE SIDE BUT I LIKE TO-”_

“OH MY ASGORE YOU HAVE HAIR! AMAZING. MAY I SEE?”

 

_“UM, YES, BUT, WELL, UM…WELL ONLY ON ONE HALF OF MY HEAD.”_

 

Nile turned around, and slowly unwrapped her head bandages to her neck. A few locks of lovely black braided hair swept over her eye right socket. The other side of her head was  stone-like and seemed to have a hole at the top. Under the Bandages, Nile’s face was mostly an ash grey brown color, and was pretty smooth, like a rock. He reached out his skeletal hand and stroked her face.

 

She looked embarrassed,

 

“WOW! YOU ARE SO AMAZING NILE. YOUR FACE IS SO NICE”

 

 

_“WHAT DO YOU MEAN? I ONLY HAVE HAIR ON ONE HALF OF MY HEAD AND A GIANT GAPING HOLE ON THE OTHER SIDE! AND THE REST OF ME IS DUST AND BONES!”_

 

Papyrus shook his head, he leaned forward and kissed Nile with his teeth.

 

“I HAVE NEVER SEEN A MONSTER MORE BEAUTIFUL.”

 

Nile felt like a weight lifted off her chest.

 

The two found themselves stretched out on Papyrus’ bed again, faces flushed. Papyrus took a moment to kiss the top of Nile’s head.

 

“NILE. DID YOU NOTICE THAT THE HOLE IN YOUR HEAD IS SHAPED LIKE A LITTLE SOUL?”

 

Nile giggled.

 

_“HEH, THERE IS A REASON FOR THAT. WHEN I WAS BORN, WELL, LET US JUST SAY THAT IF YOU TRY TO SUPPRESS A STRONG MONSTER’S MAGIC, THE MAGIC WILL FIND A WAY TO FIGHT BACK. I HAVE A LARGER HOLE ABOVE MY SOUL, TOO. MY MOTHER WAS SO EMBARRASSED, SHE USUALLY WOULD NOT LET ME UNDO THE BANDAGES.”_

“WHY WOULD SHE BE LIKE THAT?”

 

_“IT MEANS MY MAGIC WAS TOO STRONG TO BE CONTAINED BY SPELLS, REMEMBER STRONG MAGIC IS BAD IN MUMMY CIRCLES?”_

“WELL, I LOVE YOU, AND I THINK EVERY BIT OF YOU IS SPECTACULAR!”

 

Nile felt like she might die from happiness.

 

_“HEHE, PAPYRUS, YOU WANT TO SEE THE OTHER ONE?”_

Nile flirtingly winked her eye socket and started to unravel a few more bandages.

Papyrus’ eyes went wide and he jumped off the bed.

 

“AFTER LAST TIME? DO YOU THINK IT WILL BE OK?”

 

_“I AM PRETTY SURE THERE ARE NO MORE CURSES AROUND. WE NEVER REALLY GOT TO FINISH AFTER ALL. AND WELL, I WAS HOPING WE COULD TRY A SECOND TIME.”_

“UM, WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO GET YOU ANYTHING FIRST? OR SHOULD I GET ROMANTIC MUSIC? MAYBE I COULD MAKE YOU MORE SPAGHET-”

Nile giggled and pulled Papyrus back to the bed.

 

_“IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO THAT IS FINE, BUT I DO NOT SEE HOW PASTA WOULD MAKE THIS MORE ROMANTIC, ALL I NEED IS YOU!”_

Papyrus had never considered this particular culinary opinion before, but against all predisposition he was willing to give it a try.

 

Nile slid off her top and shirt, and continued to unwrap the long elegant bandage that covered her torso. Papyrus held back a gasp when he saw the hole on her ribcage. It was pretty large...Papyrus supposed she had been careful the other day not to reveal it.  Nile's soul shone brightly, its gentle pulsing drawing Papyrus in.

 

Papyrus gently reached a shaky hand out, delicately touching her ribcage.

 

“DOES-DOES IT HURT? IS IT OK?”

 

_“IT FEELS GOOD.”_

Nile rolled on top of Papyrus and he held her in his arms, he just wanted this time to go better.

 

_“PY, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH.”_

“I LOVE YOU TOO, NILE.”

Papyrus found himself unwrapping her bandages a bit lower today, letting her hands guide him. He was so nervous his hands mostly just hovered over her body.

 

Papyrus noticed several markings on Nile’s unwrapped arms.

 

He moved his fingers towards one, which caused Nile to wince.

 

Papyrus immediately moved his finger back.

 

_“NO, PLEASE, DO NOT STOP, JUST THOSE BITS HURT.”_

“UM. DO YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT THAT?”

 

_“UM, YOU CAN PROBABLY FIGURE OUT WHAT HAPPENED IN MY ROOM EARLIER.”_

Papyrus hugged Nile very gently.

 

_“I WILL BE FINE PY. LET’S NOT LET MY MOTHER RUIN THE MOMENT A SECOND TIME.”_

 

She was so beautiful; Papyrus stared into her eye sockets. She playfully flicked the hourglass necklace and moved Papyrus so he was on top.

_“YOU STILL WANT ME?”_

“OF COURSE”

 

Papyrus moved so that she could slip off his shirt and his shorts. He blushed as Nile kissed him.

 

_“OK, FOR REAL THIS TIME.”_

Their souls rushed forward, ready to meet again. Papyrus’ soul glowed brightly.

 

_“MAY I TOUCH YOUR SOUL THIS TIME?”_

Papyrus nodded yes.

Nile reached her hand forward and gently touched Papyrus’ soul with two fingers and her thumb, gently caressing and letting the cool sensation wash over her fingers. Papyrus felt like his whole body was melting with joy and her fingers stroked it.

 

Papyrus returned the favor and gently touched the mummy's soul- it felt like his fingers were slipping into chilled soft sand. Nile relaxed her smile, and the spider-web like beams of light connected them again.

 

The two of them drew closer, and shared love and happiness. And while Papyrus’ face pricked from the burning bandages, and Nile’s bruises stung, the two hardly noticed.

***********************************************************

 

Grillby and Sans got out of the taxi and made it to Sans house. It was pretty late at this point- the two had taken a long time to get back to the surface, since the elemental had insisted they stop by a restaurant on the way home, considering Sans had looked like he might feint if he did not eat soon.

 

Grillby had just gotten some fries, but he made sure Sans got a tomato soup for his magic and to warm him up-the skeleton seemed to have the chills. Grillby glared at the soup. It seemed cold to him (well _everything_ seemed cold to him) so he took the spoon from Sans and gently blew on each spoonful, the steam rising and clouding his glasses, before feeding it to Sans. Sans looked a bit sh about having someone feed him at first, but seemed to enjoy the soup more.

 

Sans got a bit of revenge by feeding Grillby a couple of fries. The two laughed, and did not seem to notice other couples giving them looks at the mostly human filled joint. Grillby was worried though, all the laughing seemed to tire Sans out. While they waited for the cab, the small skeleton slumped into him, asleep.

 

Grillby held the small skeleton. The taxi was taking forever. He made the mistake of calling his insurance company during the wait. Apparently teleporting into lava was not covered. What was the point of buying lava insurance if it only counted destruction from lava _flow_? Ugh. Grillby’s annoyance disappeared as he looked at Sans.

 

For him to risk his life like that- well he had always known Sans cared- but what if he had mistimed the shortcut and landed in the lava? Grillby shuddered. How could Grillby show the guy he loved him just as much?

 

Finally the taxi arrived, and brought them to Sans’ house. Grillby reluctantly nudged Sans out of his arms and awake, to help him to the door. Sans found the spare key under the mat, and opened the door to a dark, quiet house.

 

Before Sans could walk through the door, Grillby scooped him up again into a hug.

 

“…alright Sans…I hope you are prepared to be doted on…I know we just ate…but I want to make you…something special…”

 

Grillby flicked on the lights and started to bring Sans to the couch.

 

“aren’t you tired, grillbabe? i can help, too.”

 

Sans said this while yawning. He attempted to roll out of Grillby’s arms, but he just ended up further sunken into his elemental.

 

“…Nope…you are under…ar- _rest_ …”

 

Grillby moved Sans to be next to the couch’s arm rest and gave him a fiery kiss. Sans started to chuckle, and any possible motivation to leave the couch was gone as a fuzzy and meowing Catsup heard said laughter and ran down the stairs and into Sans’ arms.

 

Sans smiled and closed his eyes.

 

“you are too good to me grillbz.”

 

“…Sans, I do not… deserve half the things you do for me… now prepare to be blown away by an amazing culinary creation…”

 

To Sans surprise, Grillby somehow managed to make a knuckle cracking sound, although perhaps it was more of a popping crackle.

 

The determined elemental snuck into the kitchen cabinet while Sans closed his eyes. Most of the ingredients for what he needed were in the cabinets: flour, sugar, spices, eggs, cream cheese, and most importantly: the secret ingredient.

 

He had been worried they would not have every ingredient, but it looked like Papyrus had gone shopping today.

 

And cooked spaghetti.

 

Huh, and eaten two bowls of it.

 

And not washed the bowls?

 

And was not downstairs watching MTT, or running down to say hello?

 

Grillby wondered where the skeleton was. His car was here so perhaps he was out jogging again? Grillby heard a giggle from upstairs. Huh, he guessed Papyrus was reading or something. Grillby wanted to make the treat without Papyrus, so he figured he’s call him down once he was finished.

 

***********************************************

 

After a bit of mixing, Grillby looked at the couch. Sans was already asleep again. Grillby smiled his jack-o-lantern smile. Sans was so cute when he slept.

 

Being on vacation was fun, but he looked forward to being alone with Sans again. Being curled up in the skeleton’s messy room with the sad mattress beat any five star hotel.

 

Grillby smiled and tried to keep cooking the surprise treat-he had made cakes before, but he had never seen Sans eat one like this. He had wanted to make this for Sans birthday, but he suddenly realized he did not know when that was yet. Dang. He should probably ask that. He wondered what Sans favorite flavor was? It felt like the pair had been dating forever, but there was so much Grillby did not know.

 

While contemplating, he managed to burn up a few cloves and set a briefly set a metal can's label on fire.

 

“…Crap!...”

 

He put it out, but noticed that the fire alarm in the hallway had turned a warning light on. Ugh. He hated fire alarms.

 

After a few minutes Sans let out a snore, which was adorable, and also somehow caused Grillby to spill some cinnamon. Man, what was with him today?

 

Finally, Grillby poured the cake batter into the pan, and set it in the oven.

 

Now he could just concentrate on Sans: his lovely boyfriend who- who was shaking!

 

Oh my Asgore, no boyfriend of Grillby’s was going to be cold! Grillby ran up to the couch and warmed it, carefully transferring his heat to warm the cushion.

 

Sans was still shaking. Grillby would have to hand in his fire elemental card if this kept up.

 

Grillby knelt down and hugged Sans, resting his fiery head on Sans’ chest, really concentrating his magic. Sans still shivered.

 

Now Grillby was starting to panic, he nudged Sans awake.

 

“…Sans…are you ok…?”

 

“oh hey, grillbabe. i am feeling pretty chilled from gaster’s magic. he was a lot stronger than me, and ghasts have an even chiller sort of feel to their magic, so i might be a bit cold for a bit.”

 

“…I want to warm you up…”

 

“i do not know if you can do that.”

 

Grillby looked like he might turn to ash from such a suggestion.

 

“…Sans…I am literally made of FIRE…I am I a fire elemental … or am I a glorified sentient nightlight to you?...”

 

“no, no, I know you are super warm and cozy, grillbz.”

 

Sans snuggled into Grillby’s head. Grillby filled himself with determination and tried to have his flames rise a bit and come off his form, letting a few tongues of flame cover Sans’ bones.

 

“mmmhm, that is nice babe,”

 

Sans shivered again.

 

“ err, well I guess even if you do that, the magic is in my soul, so it is my soul that is cold.”

 

“…Oh…” Grillby turned his head for a second.

 

“…Well…you know Sans…there is a way I could warm your soul…”

 

“wait, you mean-”

 

Oh man.

 

Sans felt a nervous flutter.

 

“…If you want… I know a few things I could do…”

 

Sans looked at Grillby, stars in his eyes. The elemental carefully unbuttoned his shirt.

 

Sans had been hoping Grillby would want to do this for a while. He had not been expecting it like this though. Was he ready for this? Sans hand shook, but he started to slip his shirt off.

 

Grillby smiled.

 

“…oh, no do not strain yourself Sans…you do not need to do anything…”

 

Sans was suddenly a bit confused. He was pretty sure he had read that it worked best if-

 

“If…you want Sans… I can try to donate magic…as long as you think it won’t hurt you…”

 

Sans had been hoping Grillby would say something a little different than magic donation.

 

Blushing profusely Sans leaned back against the armrest,

 

“you’d do that for me? and of course it wont hurt me. i love you.”

 

“…I love you too Sans…I would give you magic the normal way….but if I give it from my soul directly it should feel the most hot… which we want in this case….but in the past some monsters have not enjoyed it…it is a similar process to soul sharing….but I will make sure that my soul does not cross any boundaries…I hope that sounds ok… do you mind?…”

 

Sans assured Grillby that he did not mind.

 

Grillby leaned over Sans, his white monster soul materialized and turned red, Grillby smiled and a shot of red magic pulsed out and hit Sans’ chest.

 

Sans immediately felt a warm sensation sweep over him that escalated into an inferno. It was super hot- it felt like his insides were on fire, but at the same time, it felt nice, like he could really-truly feel Grillby. Was this what Grillby felt like inside all the time?

 

“grillbz, you are amazing. are you always this hot?”

 

Grillby blushed.

 

“…Well…I am honestly a bit cold for a fire elemental…I try to tone it down for you still… I do not want to hurt you…was it comfortable?…”

 

“it was like being hit by a fireball.”

 

Grillby looked a bit panicked. He had shared magic with non-fiery monsters before, but had figured that this would not be too much. Maybe that Ghoul doctor was right?

 

“i loved it! um, would you do it again?”

 

“…wait, really?...”

 

“i mean, only if you want? to be honest i, um, really liked it.”

 

Grillby leaned over Sans, this time kissing him as he let another burst of magic shoot out from his soul.

 

Sans felt the second surge of magic hit him, and looked at Grillby with nothing but love in his eyes. Grillby’s soul let out a small spiderlike web of red light-Sans could feel his soul start to lift out of his chest…

 

Grillby saw that the beam was starting to connect to Sans soul.

 

“…Oh Dang!...Sans I am sorry, let me break it off…”

 

“um, grillby actually I did n-”

 

BEEP BEEP B-BEEP. BEEP BEEP B-BEEP

 

The oven timer went off.

 

“…Sorry Sans!...I did not mean for my soul to do that…you just looked so happy…here…now that you are warm let me finish this surprise for you…”

 

Sans resolved to tell Grillby how he felt. He was an adult. He could talk about this.

 

The elemental got out some sugar, milk, and cream cheese to make the frosting.

 

“grillbz, we’ve been dating for a bit now, and there is something i want to talk about with you.”

 

“…Go ahead Sans…”

 

Sans was a bit nervous saying this. Lousy puns would have to do.

 

“well, just now when you shared your magic, it was _hot_.”

 

“…Yes! I am glad I warmed your soul up… seriously was starting to worry nothing would work…”

 

Grillby twirled the whisk as he mixed the frosting ingredients together. He started to pour the sugar.

 

Sans told him what he would like to do with Grillby.

 

Grillby spilled half the bag of sugar into his flames in shock.

 

The vast quantity of burnt sugar caused the fire alarm to finally go off.

 

***********************

Nile and Papyrus had had a romantic evening together. The mummy had shown Papyrus how to wrap bandages back up, and let him do hers.

 

Papyrus put on some shorts and started to put on a crop top, when Nile playfully stole the top.

 

_“YOU LOOK SO GOOD, DO YOU WANT SOME BANDAGES? I HAVE SPARE BLACK AND GREY ONES?”_

Papyrus’ eye glowed brightly in excitement.

 

“I GUESS BLACK MATCHES THE ONES ON MY FACE?”

 

Nile nodded and carefully wrapped his arms and torso.

 

“NYEH HEH HEH. I REALLY LOOK LIKE A MUMMY NOW. HERE, YOU CAN LOOK LIKE A SKELETON”

 

Papyrus lent her the crop top, which on her was more like a mini dress, coming only down mid thigh. Papyrus kissed her legs and Nile giggled. Before an more nonsense could go on the pair heard the feint beep of the oven timer.

 

BEEP BEEP B-BEEP. BEEP BEEP B-BEEP

 

“HUH. THAT IS WEIRD. WERE YOU COOKING SOMETHING?”

 

_“NO, MAYBE I SET IT BY ACCIDENT THOUGH?”_

“IT SHOULD BE THEN.” Papyrus moved in to cuddle with Nile more.

 

The fire alarm went off.

 

_“OH ZHURG!”_

Nile jumped off of Papyrus and ran out the door.

 

_“PY, IS THAT A FIRE?”_

Papyrus had started a good number of kitchen fires in his life, but he really did not want Sans to come home to a burnt down house. The skeleton practically jumped down the stairs, and hit the flames with blue magic on his way down, to try to smother them-

 

_“PY WAIT -”_

“bro!”

Papyrus immediately stopped the blue gravity magic that held his boss to the ground.

 

 

“UM, NYEH HEH HEH, HEY GRILLBY. I AM SO INCREDIBLY SORRY ABOUT THAT, I HEARD THE ALARM AND UM, PANICKED.”

 

Grillby and the cream cheese sugar mixture had been thrown to the ground with the weight of Papyrus’ gravity magic. Normally, if Papyrus would not use so much force on a monster. Rubbing his skull in embarrassment, Papyrus helped up the elemental.

 

Grillby was also rubbing his head. He had to gasp for a second; being knocked to the ground had flattened his flames a bit.

 

“...Dang Papyrus, you really pack a punch…I suppose I can just be happy you do not have water magic...and the frosting is… somehow… ok…so…it is all good…”

 

Grillby continued whipping the frosting for a few seconds before noticing that there was an extra monster who had run down the stairs.

 

An extra monster who was wearing Papyrus’ shirt, whose green blushing face matched a green soul shining through said shirt. Grillby politely looked away to Papyrus.

 

It was then that Grillby noticed Papyrus’ orange soul was shining through his bandaged ribcage, and that in fact he was only wearing some sort of shorts-

 

“WELL, UM, IT IS SO GREAT YOU GUYS CAME HOME TWO DAYS EARLY! HOW UNEXPECTEDLY AWESOME! SORRY ABOUT THAT, I REALLY NEED TO GET GLASSES, HUH?”

 

“uh bro are-”

 

“UH WELL UM, THIS IS MY FRIEND UH, WE WERE -UM WORKING OUT, SO, UH I GUESS WE COULD NOT HEAR YOU OVER ALL THE EXERCISE NYEH HEH HEH! JUST ASSUMED THE FIRE ALARM WAS FROM AN ACTUAL FIRE, AND NOT MY BOSS OR ANYTHING.”

 

Sans just sat on the couch silently for a second.

 

“JUST GIVE US A MINUTE TO UM, PUT ON-CLO- NOT WORK OUT CLOTHES. WE WILL BE RIGHT BACK.”

 

Papyrus had never been a more vibrant shade of orange. He and the mysterious Mummy catapulted up the stairs.

 

Papyrus shouted rather loudly,

 

“OH, UH, YEAH I AM JUST GOING TO GO CHANGE IN THIS SEPARATE ROOM OVER HERE.”

 

Grillby and Sans caught each other’s eyes (well eye sockets and glasses).

 

Grillby walked up to Sans, still whisking the frosting.

 

“…So…uh…”

 

Grillby had no idea how Sans would react to the fact that his brother seemed to be uh, seeing someone.

 

“grillby.”

 

Grillby looked at Sans.

 

“did you notice that paps’ face was attacking him?”

 

 

****************

 

A few minutes later Grillby had finished icing the cake, and had given Sans the spatula to lick. Grillby enjoyed watching Sans smile and lick the frosting, using his magical tongue to lick most of it off his teeth. He could tell Sans was thinking about Papyrus, though as the skeleton managed to bite the spatula a few times absentmindedly.

 

“do you think he is ok? are the bandages because he is injured?”

 

Grillby let the cake sit, and sat next to Sans on the couch.

 

“…He might just be dressing up…just ask him in a minute…you are... too sick to fret…”

 

“the ones on his face looked like they were moving though!”

 

“…You have… some icing on your mouth…”

 

Sans smiled at Grillby.

 

“heh, ok, i can wait a minute.”

 

Grillby quickly kissed the icing off of Sans just as two guilty sounding sets of footsteps came down the stairs.

 

The two had probably realized their souls were glowing, giving away that they had shared an intimate moment. Papyrus was wearing two sweaters and Nile seemed to have borrowed an orange jacket that Sans had gotten Papyrus several years ago. Considering it was a hot summer night, and Grillby was in the room, Sans felt for them.

 

“UH, HELLO SANS AND GRILLBY, I WANT TO INTRODUCE YOU TO NILE, MY GIRLFRIEND. NILE, THIS IS SANS, MY BROTHER, AND GRILLBY, WHO IS WITH SANS, AND WHO IS ALSO MY BOSS.”

 

_“HELLO. SORRY FOR EARLIER. UM, PY HAS TOLD ME SO MUCH ABOUT YOU.”_

“…Oh it is ok… I get… mistaken for an uncontrolled fire more often than I would like…”

 

Grillby tried to forget a particularly unfortunate shoe-tying incident at the park.

 

Nile strained a bit, but seemed to be able to understand Grillby’s accent.

 

“UM, AND SORRY FOR UM, OUR EARLIER APPEARANCE.”

 

“bro, honestly, if you want to take the sweater off it is ok, we aren’t offended that you two like each other, and um, ahem, exercise together.”

 

A sheepish, but visibly relieved Papyrus took one of the sweaters off, still blushing a bit and Nile sighed as she unzipped the hoodie.

 

“…If it bothers you… there is this potion you can drink that masks it…Gerson will give you a judging look, but he sells them…”

 

Sans decided he wanted Nile to feel welcomed.

 

“anyway, you two don’t have to feel so _wound_ up around us two sinners. nile it is really nice to meet you, paps couldn’t keep having a girlfriend under _wraps_ forever.”

 

Papyrus’ eye socket twitched. Nile beamed.

 

_“IT IS NICE TO MEET YOU, TOO. PY TOLD ME ABOUT YOU AND HOW HE IS REALLY IMPRESSED BY HOW YOU DO RESEARCH AND WORK HARD. HE SEEMS TO REALLY LOOK UP TO HIS BIG BROTHER!”_

“I SAID WHAT? NO I PROBABLY SAID SOMETHING ABOUT HOW HE LAZILY SHORT CUTS EVERYWHERE.”

 

_“I THOUGHT YOU SAID THAT WAS SUPER COOL?”_

Grillby smiled knowingly,

 

“…These two…I wish I was as close to my brother…Sans talks about Papyrus too… more than he does himself sometimes…”

 

“nah, i’m sure i don’t.” Sans tried his best to nonchalantly shrug his shoulders.

 

Grillby knowingly pushed his glasses up onto his face. While Sans and Papyrus tried to look like they did no such compliment exchange.

 

Grillby sometimes wished Sans talked a little less about his brother: in the car, at the bar, after making out, there were some times Grillby wanted to hear less about the skeleton.

 

“…So…I made a cake…for Sans…would you like to try some?…”

 

_“OH WOW. AFTER GOING TO YOUR RESTURANT I BET YOUR CAKE WILL BE AMAZING!”_

 

 

Papyrus and Nile nodded enthusiastically and ran up to Grillby as he cut a few pieces.

 

 

“SANS, HAS THE VACATION MADE YOU EVEN MORE SLUGGISH, COME GET A PIECE!”

 

“uh, i am having trouble walking right now bro.”

 

Papyrus turned to Sans.

 

“NYEH HEH HEH, WELL YOU CAN ALWAYS JUST SHORT CUT OVER?”

 

“sorry bro, having trouble with my magic levels.”

 

Papyrus suddenly stopped Nyeh-heh hehing and ran up to Sans.

 

“SANS, DID YOU… OVERUSE YOUR MAGIC?”

 

Papyrus looked like he was going to give Sans a brotherly lecture. Grillby stepped in,

 

“…He saved my father from dusting…by short cutting the whole car from Arizona to Hotland… I cannot thank him enough…”

 

Grillby walked up to Sand with a huge piece of cake.

 

“SANS, THAT IS ASTONISHING!”

 

Nile nodded too, she had no idea where Arizona was, but to move a whole car of monsters sounded amazing.

 

“HAVE YOU RECOVERED ENOUGH MAGIC? YOU REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED TO G-ST—AFTER HE OVERDID IT THAT ONE TIME?”

 

“…What happened to…G0.oOo…?”

 

“oh gaster was fine. he just lost a few pieces of himself across time and space, even before the accident.”

 

Grillby did not think that sounded fine, his flames flickered in worry.

 

“speaking of gaster, guess who came to visit me in the hospital and donate magic?”

 

Papyrus looked stunned.

 

“YOU SAW HIM!”

 

“for a moment.” Sans closed his eyes, happy to have seen his mentor again. Papyrus went from happy to concerned again.

 

“GA---R GAVE YOU MAGIC! SANS! THAT IS VERY UNSTABLE AND DANGEROUS!”

 

“paps it is fine, see.”

 

Sans demonstrated by summoning a very small bone, about the size of a finger. Grillby noticed that the magic was not Sans’ usual blue color but had a black lightning effect, and that the bone was longer and thinner than the ones Sans usually made.

 

Papyrus sighed when he saw it, and for a second his expression softened.

 

“WOW, THAT IS JUST LIKE HIS USED TO LOOK…”

 

“it was really nice to see him. he even said hi to grillbz!”

 

“OK, WELL, THAT IS FINE, BUT PLEASE JUST BURN THE REST OFF IN SOME STUPID WAY, I DO NOT WANT YOU SHORT CUTTING WITH THAT.”

 

“geez, paps, don’t worry so much.”

 

“I JUST HATE SEEING YOU LIKE THIS.”

 

“says the monster that has bandages on his skull and torso. Oh yeah, that reminds we- why are there black bandages on your head that appear to be hitting you?”

 

Sans smile turned into a frown. He was still weak from magic loss, but Grillby could tell that if he had the ability to, his eye would be flickering with blue fire.

 

Papyrus looked at Nile, and then looked at the floor. Nile spoke up.

 

_“THAT IS MY FAULT. I-I HAD A CURSED MASK ON, AND IT ATTACKED PAPYRUS.”_

Nile bowed her head.

 

“what?” Sans sat straight up.

 

“why were you wearing a cursed mask?”

 

_“UM. MOTHER WOULD NOT LET ME LEAVE FOR A DATE WITHOUT ONE. I AM SO SORRY, WE TRIED TO AVOID THE MAIN CURSE, BUT SHE STUCK IN A SUB CURSE I WAS UNAWARE OF. HER CURSES ARE POWERFUL- AND LUCKILY PY WAS ABLE TO FIGHT IT OFF, BUT IT WAS AWFUL. I STILL HAVE NOT FORGIVEN MYSELF FOR LETTING IT ATTACK PAPYRUS, SO I UNDERSTAND IF YOU DO NOT WANT ME TO DATE YOUR BROTHER.”_

Nile looked upset, but she clenched her fist in determination.

 

“NILE, IT IS NOT YOUR FAULT…IT COULD HAVE HURT YOU, TOO, WHICH WOULD BE WORSE.”

 

Papyrus put an arm around Nile, and tried to catch her eyes. She kept her head down, waiting to hear from Sans.

 

Papyrus gave a pointed look to his brother, who realized he was glaring and that his eye had managed to light up with Gaster’s black fire. Sans cooled it and smiled at Nile.

 

“nile, if my brother likes you, then i know you are a good person. you don’t need my permission to date, but i like you. are you, uh, safe now?”

 

“THE GUARDS KNOW ABOUT THE INCIDENT, AND NILE MOVED OUT TODAY.”

 

_“IT TOOK…A BIT OF EFFORT. BUT IT WILL BE BETTER UP HERE ON THE SURFACE.”_

 

Sans took a breath. He really really wished he could teleport so he could give Nile’s mother a piece of his mind-but even if he could he knew Papyrus would not want that. The best he could do was make Nile feel welcome.

 

“if you aren’t already, you are welcome to stay with us.”

 

_“WOW, YOU REALLY ARE AS COOL AS PY SAYS! THANK YOU SO MUCH!”_

Nile ran up to Sans and gave him an unexpected hug. Papyrus and Grillby joined in.

 

“…Well…now that we have that done…want to try the cake?….”

 

Grillby watched Sans carefully as he took a bite. His smile widened ear bone to ear bone.

 

“IS THIS A VEGETABLE CAKE?”

 

“its tomatoes, wow!”

 

Grillby had made tomato soup cake, a variant of spice cake.

 

Sans had no idea tomatoes could be this amazing.

 

Everyone enjoyed a few pieces, and the monsters found themselves spending the rest of the night getting to know each other on the large green plaid couch in the living room, with Sans and Grillby curled up on one end, and Nile and Papyrus on the other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter, a triple date? :D


	37. In which we learn Papyrus is ticklish

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grillby and Sans recover and then go on a date with the others!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the pause- I think i'll be back in the swing of things now though. Work has been a bit rough lately and I keep just falling asleep when I get home. Excited for this next chapter though- lots of cute fluff. The date will continue. I am happy to also finally write in the little monsterlings a bit more.

Grillby was exhausted Sunday morning. Somehow he and Sans had fallen asleep on the couch. The elemental fought an internal battle to get off of it, but was lulled back to sleep by a cuddly skeleton hand in his arms.

 

Grillby had a nice dream about living in a bakery made of gingerbread with Sans. It looked like Sans, except he was actually a marshmallow, and it looked like Grillby except his head was cotton candy with glasses. Sans made a blueberry pie, and gumdrop monsters came from all around to eat it. All was well, but suddenly Grillby was growing bigger. His cotton candy flames were filling he entire store. The gumdrop monsters were lost in it, and Grillby flailed around looking for Sans the marshmallow. The gingerbread-house broke, Sans was nowhere to be found!

 

Grillby called for him, shouting in his sleep.

 

“…o0oo!!!…”

 

“grillbabe, wake up, you are having a nightmare.”

 

Grillby blearily opened his eyes, realizing he had been tossing and turning around on the couch.

 

“…sorry Sans…”

 

Grillby nuzzled into Sans’ hand, his finger interlaces with the phalanges, giving each finger a fiery kiss.

 

“GAH STOP!” Papyrus shouted, while laughing uncontrollably.

 

Huh.

 

Grillby reached for his glasses. Sans was actually awake, sitting on the couch’s armrest over Grillby with a pie tin dish, looking like he was trying not to laugh and drop the pie.

 

Huh, if Sans was holding the pie tin with both his hands, then that meant-

 

Grillby bolted upright.

 

In the kitchen, Nile, Papyrus, and to Grillby’s horror The Queen of all Monsters and Frisk were already making breakfast. Papyrus and Nile were in pajamas while Frisk and Toriel seemed to be dressed in formal attire. Was Grillby really awake? Was Grillby wearing something appropriate to greet the Queen of all Monsters?

 

An exasperated looking Papyrus hobbled over to panicked Grillby- his eye sockets were filled with little orange tears from what seemed like laughter.

 

Grillby looked at what he had thought was Sans hand- it was Papyrus’s foot, his fingers clasped between the toes-oh Asgore.

 

“NYEH HEH HEH, WELL, WE FELL ASLEEP ON THE COUCH LAST NIGHT, TOO, BUT WE WOKE UP AFTER MIDNIGHT AND WENT TO MY ROOM. I TEND TO STRETCH OUT IN MY SLEEP, SO I THINK THAT IS HOW YOU GOT MY FOOT. I DID NOT WANT TO WAKE YOU UP, SO I GENEROUSLY JUST POPPED IT OFF AND WENT UPSTAIRS.”

 

Grillby made an indescribable face after the realization that he had kissed Papyrus’ foot sunk in.

 

Nile spoke up.

 

_“WE REALLY DID TRY TO GET YOU OFF OF IT FOR A WHILE, BUT I THINK MY MAGIC COULD SERIOUSLY HURT YOU, SANS TRIED TOO GET IT OFF THIS MORNING, BUT YOU SEEMED PRETTY ATTACHED SO WE JUST LET YOU HAVE IT.”_

“…I kissed…your foot…I might die…” Grillby’s flames turned a mixture of colors, mostly an embarrassed blue.

 

“IT IS AN EXCEPTIONALLY CLEAN FOOT! I TAKE BETTER CARE OF MY FEET THAN SANS TAKES OF HIS FACE!”

 

Papyrus indignantly put a hand on his hips and pointed at his brother. Sans stuck a magical tongue out at Paps.

 

Grillby smiled.

“…Haha ok, but you could have… just woken me up…I would not have minded… and I appreciate you not using sand magic on me… that would hurt…Sorry, I thought your foot was Sans hand…so I did not want to let go”

 

“daww, grillbz” Sans eyes lit up with happiness-a black flame danced for a second.

 

“I COMPLETELY UNDERSTAND, WHO WOULD WANT TO LET GO OF MY FOOT? BESIDES I WOULD NOT WANT TO WAKE YOU UP AFTER YESTERDAY. AND DO NOT WORRY, I- THE GREAT PAPYRUS- BARELY NOTICED A THING.”

 

Sans snorted, while a giggling Nile shook her head.

 

“OK, PERHAPS IT WAS VERY TICKLISH. THUS, WE WOKE UP EARLY TO START COOKING- AND THEN WHILE YOU TWO LAZY BONES WERE SLEEPING AWAY, TORIEL AND FRISK STOPPED BY.”

 

_“HE KEPT LAUGHING AND DROPPING THE INGREDIENTS, IT WAS SO CUTE.”_

 

Papyrus snatched his foot back.

 

“It was pretty funny, dear,” Toriel finished filling a pie and came up to the monsters.

 

“Good morning Grillby!” Toriel beamed,

 

“I know it is rather early, but after Sans texted me what happened, Frisk and I just had to stop by before we went to our conference.”

 

Toriel swapped the blueberry pie Sans had been holding with a second pie, this one a quiche, and took the blueberry one that Sans had been toasting to the table.

 

“eh i hope you don’t mind grillbz, there’s not much room in the kitchen, so I figured instead of waking you up, i’d _pie_ and be near you since i love you so _berry_ much.”

 

Grillby nuzzled into actual Sans’ hand,

 

“…I can cook this one… a bit faster if you want?…”

 

“We are in no hurry. _bake_ your time.”

 

Grillby hugged the quiche like a teddy bear and leaned into Sans. Frisk winked at them both and then gave them a thumbs up before continuing their cooking project. That kid...

 

 

Grillby looked in the kitchen. Papyrus was straining a pot of pasta and seemed to have some sauce finishing, too. Nile was teaching Frisk to make a dish Grillby did not recognize, with what looked like fava beans mixed with herbs. She was letting Frisk mash it together, while prepping some pita bread and some pickled carrots and cucumbers.

“…Wow how did I not wake up...you have made so much… already…” Grillby yawned.

 

 

Grillby and Sans watched as Nile showed Frisk how to get the consistency just right in the dish Grillby learned was called Ful Medames, an Egyptian breakfast dish. Nile seemed to be really good with teaching Fisk. Toriel smiled as the pair worked together and chatted with Nile.

 

Grillby kept hugging the quiche while the others put the finishing touches on their dishes. It was nice to just let everyone else cook for a change.

 

*********

 

After a bit more work, it was breakfast time, everyone enjoyed the food, and afterwards hung out in the living room. Frisk had been practicing their art recently and had been working on some drawings.

 

Frisk ran up to Sans and Grillby showing the couple their most recent masterpiece. It was a picture of Sans and Grillby dancing together from the last time. Grillby looked like a blur of red and green and Sans was again a marshmallow. Grillby smiled, he wondered if everyone imagined Sans as a marshmallow.

 

“WOWIE FRISK, THAT IS THE SECOND BEST PICTURE I HAVE SEEN YOU MAKE THIS MORNING!”

 

Papyrus showed off the picture Frisk had drawn of Papyrus in a wig and tutu dancing with a matching Frisk. Both pictures went onto the fridge.

 

Frisk also had a crayon drawing of Alphys and Undyne with their kids (Frisk had met them last week). They excitedly talked about how they were going to be the babies’ big sibling.

 

Finally, before they had to leave for the conference, Frisk promised Nile they would draw a picture of her for next time.

 

******************************************************

 

Papyrus went to work, and Nile decided to go out and start applying for a job. Grillby had offered her one, he always needed more wait staff, but Nile did not want to risk her magic ruining the quality of the food.

 

Papyrus insisted that Grillby stay home and relax.

 

“THE RESTURANT HAS BEEN FINE, IT IS YOUR DAY OFF, RIGHT?”

 

Grillby’s desire to check on the bar would not be kept in check much longer, but he did want to make sure Sans was ok.

 

Alone together, Sans apologized for baking pies over Grillby again.

 

“…no…it was nice…I actually even had a mostly nice dream about it…”

 

“oh yeah, that sounded bad at the end, what was that you shouted in your sleep?”

 

“…your name…”

 

“wait that was my name- was it in fire speak?”

 

“…It is simplified fire speak…o0oo…the large crackle is the ‘a’ sound...”

 

“oh wow. that sounds awesome!”

 

“..oo0oooO…o0oOo…o0oo…”

 

“what was that?”

 

“…guess…”

 

“hmm, sounded like ‘hug the firemonster’.”

 

Sans hugged Grillby.

 

“…nope, but I am fine with that…”

 

Sans and Grillby snuggled into each other on the couch for a few hours.

 

 

***************

 

“…How are you feeling Sans…?”

 

“well, it’s weird. i am alternating between long periods of being super cold and then flashes of being super hot. i am cold now, so maybe i should warm up. ”

 

“…I can help with that…”

 

Grillby had a plan.

 

Sans expected Grillby to hug him, but instead found himself being lifted into a piggy-back ride by Grillby. This- worked considerably better than the time Sans had carried the elemental. Sans jaw rested in Grillby’s flames and walked into the blisteringly hot summer day. Grillby’s flames shined brightly, but he could feel Sans’ discomfort. He dropped Sans off under a tree.

 

Outside on the street, the nice-cream monster (a blue rabbit man) had finally gotten a permit to sell nice cream around the block. It played its music as little rabbit and dinosaur monsterlings and parents on the block ran up for a treat. Grillby gently rested Sans against a shady tree.

 

To the Rabbit’s surprise, Grillby ran up to the truck waving his arms to stop them before they left the street.

 

“Wait-you want a nicecream?”

 

“…Yup... blueberry pop, please…” Grillby got out his wallet.

 

The nice-cream monster raised an eyebrow and signaled to an orange cat monster in the back, who tossed over a popsicle.

 

“he’s our fiftieth customer today.” The cat monster- whom Grillby recognized as Burgerpants seemed happy to no longer work for Mettaton.

 

“Oh wow! You get a second popsicle for free!”

 

“…ooh…could we try cherry?...”

 

The blue rabbit man was pretty sad that his nice-cream was just going to be melted into little evaporated puddles, but he supposed if the elemental liked that who was he to judge?

 

Grillby waited till after he paid before picking up the popsicles and running them over to Sans, who had dozed off for a second under the tree.

 

“woah, grillbz, you didn’t have to.”

 

Grillby shook his head and sat next to Sans under the shade of the tree.

 

Sans had never really noticed the tree in his front yard before, it was a small hickory tree that just seemed to be there so there was something in front of the house, but sitting under it with Grillby and looking up at the green leaves made him happy.

 

As Grillby happily looked up at the leaves with sunlight shining through, Sans remembered he had planned on getting him a sunflower plant. It was a little late in the season but maybe he still could.

 

Grillby held the popsicle so the skeleton could eat it - Sans made a show of making a tongue and licking it- complete with winking gestures that Grillby hoped no other monster could see.

 

The elemental snorted- flames rising high- he needed to make sure his flames didn’t rise too high and light something on fire.

 

Grillby stared at Sans-the tongue was a bit odd, it had a black glow today and looked-sinister? Still Sans licking ice cream was adorable.

 

The tongue turned red, and half the popsicle melted. Sans sighed, but smiled and finished happily eating the rest of the popsicle without incident before moving on to the second.

 

“…So…that happens because of magic donation?...”

 

“i don’t mind.”

 

“…Oh man, do you think if you gave me magic I could lift things?...”

 

“maybe. i mean i didn’t really control that tongue turning hot.”

 

“…maybe with enough practice?... Imagine… all the cake decorating that I could do if I could touch sugar without melting it?…”

 

Sans smiled,

 

“well, maybe i can help you with that? we should do more cooking together.”

 

Sans took the popsicle sticks from Grillby’s hands and held them out for the elemental.

 

Grillby munched on the sticks and paper wax wrappers. He actually found himself liking the cherry flavored sticks a lot. Maybe he should try that for the next family get-together.

 

The mix of scorching heat and cold ice cream seemed to do something for Sans, his soul seemed to settle for a bit.

 

“…So…you are doing better…?”

 

“definitely. should get better once i am back to normal.”

 

“...well… once it is safe for you to use the magic up more you should…”

 

“yeah.”

 

“…after this want to go inside and blast the AC while hugging me?...”

 

It might not have been the most exciting afternoon Grillby had ever spent, but curling up and wasting an afternoon together never felt so good.

 

***************************************************************************

 

Sadly the next week or so was not a relaxing cuddle under a tree.

 

Papyrus had always admired Grillby’s work ethic but the elemental was going overboard. Now that Grillby was relying on Papyrus for a ride to work, he was taking the extra time he was at the bar to revamp the restaurant. The bartender spent the first three days re-cleaning the bar, re-stocking, going over the menu, and double-checking the code and safety violations, and generally spiffing the place up.

 

“GRILLBY, AREN’T YOU OVERWORKING?”

 

“…I need the keep the restaurant running well…keep attracting customers…I still need to pay off the first car…”

 

Papyrus supposed it was true that Grillby had to keep customers coming, but the restaurant already had a good reputation among monsters, and a growing one among local humans. Still, Grillby talked with customers, greeting them, and always asked for suggestions.

 

Grillby- out of ways to re-clean the kitchen by Wednesday, and not given any glaring flaws with his restaurant by customers decided to start focusing on making the tables nicer.

 

Papyrus had to admit that the folded napkins in the shape of candles were a nice touch, but the elemental’s flames were burning low again.

 

Papyrus had hoped that Sans could infect Grillby with some laziness, but was sorely disappointed. Sans was running a bunch of last minute experiments that he wanted to present at some up coming conference. On top of it, his boss had given him a new project and two new Undergraduate students to train.

 

Sans was not sure if it was the Gaster magic in him, but he found himself taking two buses to work from Grillby’s apartment, leaving at 5AM and was coming back after dinner around 9PM- nose hole to the grindstone. Papyrus voiced his concern that Sans was not resting properly after being magic drained.

 

“its ok bro, i can sleep on the bus. humans seem to like to work long hours. besides, scientists do this sort of crunch thing all the time.” Sans said this before falling asleep pouring a box of cereal.

 

Still, Papyrus could tell how much Grillby and Sans meant to each other- the two would always end up in each other’s arms at the end of the night.

 

For instance, tonight Papyrus had volunteered to stay late putting away some of the shipping boxes in an effort to get Grillby to relax. He had also picked Sans up from work, only for the skeleton to fall asleep as soon as he sat at the bar- for the third night in a row.

 

Papyrus sighed.

 

He finished up and found the pair holding hands across the bar, heads down, shoulders slumped, long after closing hours.

 

This would not do.

 

He texted Nile, Undyne, and Alphys.

 

************************

 

It was Friday night, and Papyrus had insisted on picking up Sans at 5PM promptly. When Papyrus explained to the security check that he was here to pick up his big brother, the security smiled and let him in before he could hand them his ID. Papyrus found Sans sitting at his desk staring at some graph thing, busily writing up a report. Sans’ coworkers stared at the tall skeleton- wearing a vibrant bowling shirt, striped orange and black, the tightest pair of skinny jeans ever created, and orange tinted sunglasses.

 

Sans was staring so intently at his computer that he hadn’t noticed Papyrus, who walked right up to him.

 

“BROTHER ARE YOU FINISHED YOUR WORK?

 

Sans’ eye glowed in surprise as Papyrus threw him a pair of blue tinted sunglasses

 

Papyrus watched as Sans brought his laptop into the car and kept working, crunching numbers along the windy mountain road.

 

“SANS, IF YOU GET CARSICK, WE CAN’T GO ON OUR AMAZING TRIPLE DATE WITH ALPHYS AND UNDYNE.”

 

“our what?”

 

“OUR AMAZING TRIPLE DATE. I TEXTED YOU SEVERAL HOURS AGO! WE ARE GONNA GRAB GRILLBY.”

 

They got to Grillby’s at the start of karaoke night. Sans went to sit at the bar, but Papyrus held his shoulder back.

 

“WE THOUGHT ABOUT COMING HERE, BUT DECIDED THAT GRILLBY WOULD PROBABLY KEEP WORKING-SO WE ARE HITTING THE TOWN.”

 

“oh, i thought you might want to do karaoke, since nile likes to sing so much.”

 

Nile had been singing in the shower every morning at 5 AM. If Sans had not been leaving at 5 AM anyway he might be a bit peeved as her voice was only slightly less loud than Papyrus’.

 

“I KNOW, HER VOICE IS THE BEST- BUT I WANT TO GO SOMEWHERE DIFFERENT.”

 

 

Right now Nile was chatting with a distressed looking Apple. Zostra and Doggo were chatting in the corner.

 

Sans looked around Grillby’s- aside from Paps’ friends and Doggo, Lesser Dog, Bunny, and Ugly seemed to be hanging out. A pair of lizards were hanging around Grillby, and he seemed to be having a hard time getting them to give him a second to leave, despite Undyne and literally doing their best to pull him away. The lizard monsters seemed to be trying to pull him over, but Grillby kept letting his hand turn to flames, letting their hands slip through-useful trick that was.

 

Alphys sat at a booth with Nariko, Rinan, and Damini- each having discovered that chocolate shakes are delicious. Nariko was biting on one of Papyrus’ bone attacks, Rinan was trying to eat the shake as slowly as possible- and getting covered in whipped cream in the process, and Nariko was poking things and passerbys with her tail.

 

 

Lesser Dog walked up on stage and woofed to the crowd that he was singing a song for a special monster in the room.

 

Bunny and Doggo turned to look at Paps apologetically and Sans had a bad feeling about the monster LD might be dedicating the song to. Doggo buried his face in his paws.

 

LD proceeded to howl along to all eight minutes of Tainted Love and Where Did Our love go, by Soft Cell, all while staring pointedly at a certain skeleton. The entire K9 unit, and several tipsy humans unit joined in- the humans doing a consistently more slurred but better job of singing the lyrics. Papyrus- while not as tall as Undyne, was having a hard time ducking himself into the wall.

 

“Baby, baby, baby, where did our love go  
Don't you leave me  
Don't you leave me no more”

Six minutes in and on the third chorus, LD was stepping off the stage now with a microphone in hand, walking towards Papyrus. Papyrus looked like he might die- but by some miracle little Rinan started to sing along- humming along to the tune with their siren song.  

 

LD turned to the little fish monster and help up the microphone- letting them cutely chirp into it. The singing was unusual but oddly calming.

 

Sans found himself feeling a bit more at ease- work could wait. He saved his work and closed the laptop. LD calmed down a bit and looked embarrassed, handing the mike to the next singer. The two Lizard monsters harassing Grillby sighed and leaned back- letting Dom take their next drink.

 

Alphys smiled at her little monsterling.

 

****************

Once in the parking lot next to Grillby’s, Papyrus triumphantly tossed everyone a bowling shirt.

 

“OK, SO BOWLING IS A HUMAN SPORT WHERE THE OBJECTIVE IS TO KNOCK PINS OVER USING A BALL. AN IMPORTANT PART OF BOWLING IS LOOKING STYLISH-THUS EVERYONE HAS A BOWLING SHIRT AND MATCHING SUNGLASSES. NILE HELPED ME PICK A NICE COLOR FOR EVERY MONSTER.”

 

Nile nodded, sporting a purple striped shirt and bright violet sunglasses.

 

“Oh-Oh wow Paps! I-I’ve se-seen it in an anime! Matching shirts will make our balls fly farter with power! Th-thanks for remembering!”

 

Alphys threw on a yellow one, while Undyne got green. The three monsterlings swam in the smallest size shirts Papyrus and Nile had found- yellow for Rinan, red for Nariko, and green for Damini.

 

Grillby looked at the red bowling shirt like he wanted to light it on fire.

 

“…This is an important human tradition?…” Grillby flicked his flame skeptically as Papyrus and Sans nodded enthusiastically. He supposed that even if Sans was nodding it must be.

 

Grillby nodded and threw on the loathsome shirt. He then attempted to put the red tinted sunglasses over his regular pair. The red sunglasses kept slipping off-finally Grillby moved some flames to hold onto them.

 

“…I do not wish to be a pain, but since I already have glasses can’t I just not wear a second pair…”

 

“THEY ARE SPECIAL SUNGLASSES. AND THE COLOR COORDINATE SYLISHLY! DON’T YOU WANT TO FIT IN WITH THE HUMANS?”

 

“…Well ok…But how are these different than regular glasses? … Aside from the fact … that they don’t have a prescription?...”

 

“uh they should tint everything red.”

 

“…um…I think they must be broken then…”

 

“HOW CAN COLORED GLASS BE BROKEN?”

 

“uh, grillbz? do your flames perhaps tint everything red-orange?”

 

Grillby suddenly had a life altering epiphany.

 

“OH NO! HOW WILL HE FIT INTO HUMAN CULTURE?”

 

Sans traded his shades with Grillby, who could now enjoy the world being tinted blue-or in his case purple.

 

“heh, now i have grillby vision.” Sans saw the world tinted red.

 

Alpys, Undyne, an kin separated into the “Mommy mobile” a large family van that fit the kids while the necrotics and Grillby went on the red convertible.

 

 

*************************************

 

The triple date started well. Grillby resisted setting the hideous bowling shoes on fire, but after all three monsterlings had fun putting them on without fuss, the elemental supposed he could act like an adult.

 

Grillby looked around- while most humans did not have matching sunglasses- a few groups seemed to have bowling shirts, so it seemed the fit in. The group ordered some curly fries smothered in melted cheese and grabbed some balls.

 

“…So..how did you guys decide on bowling?...”

 

“W-well we wanted to do a human dating t-tradition.”

 

“Yeah! And after going to the beach, going to hot springs, going ice skating, going to a pool, and getting ice cream were taken out of the pool of activities -” Undyne pointedly looked at Grillby-

 

“And going somewhere where we had to be quiet like a museum, café, or movie were gone-”

 

Undyne looked at the monsterlings and then oddly Papyrus,

 

“AND doing anything too physically taxing was taken out,” Undyne looked at Sans,

 

“We were left with a smaller list. But after bowling we are going to play couple’s boardgames! Ugly and Bunny are gonna join us so it will actually be a Quadrouple date later! NOW whose ready to kick some bowling butt!”

 

Undyne picked out the heaviest bowling ball and lifted it over her head before rolling it down the lane for a perfect strike! Nariko picked up a much lighter bowling ball- and Alphys had to stop her from lifting it over her head. Nariko copied her mom-shouting “Bwowling BUTT!” and tossing the ball with all her might into the lane. The ball stopped halfway. The other two monsterlings also excitedly started shouting ‘butt!’ and tossing balls. Sans looked like he was having the time of his life. Eventually, Undyne and Alphys asked for a bumpered lane from the bowling staff after Papyrus pushed along a fourth stalled ball with gravity magic.

 

Grillby had never bowled before, but he and Sans were on a team, and the elemental wanted to do well. Grillby lined up each shot- but the ball kept only bringing down one or two pins. Sans seemed to be trying to use physics, but without gravity magic to help him- he kept using an odd amount of force. He would either get a perfect strike- or gutter ball out completely. The two did not seem to care though. Sans had fun doing goofy poses before each roll, and Grillby decided to follow suit- adding a few flames to a roll where he got some spin. The pair had a lot of style if little skill- but were giggling together and having a blast. Making bowling puns while Paps cringed.

 

Undyne and Alphys really were the team to beat- Undyne kept getting perfect- if a bit violent strikes as she threw the bowling ball with huge amounts of power and slide. Alphys was less spirited than Undyne but carefully lined up each shot. Despite having a shaky grip, she always took her time and released the ball strategically, managing to knock down most of the pins.

 

Papyrus and Nile were probably doing the worst. Nile kept gently pushing the ball, causing it to almost slow to a stop after hitting a single pin- which would have been impressive if the ball actually did not get stuck in the middle of the lane several times. Papyrus threw the ball with force, but his aim was worse than Sans’ and most balls ended up in the gutter towards the end of the lane.

_"LET'S THROW ONE TOGETHER."_

Nile aimed Papyrus' arm before he threw, and together they got a strike. Papyrus gave Nile a very quick kiss on the forehead, making Alphys squee.  
 

The three monsterlings, meanwhile, had a lane to themselves with bumpers in the gutters, and had fun rolling the lightest balls with everyone’s guidance. Damini kept tripping over her tail as she threw the ball, Rinan threw straight but too gently, and Nariko was all force- rolling the ball over the bumper and into Sans and Grillby’s lane giving them a gutterball.

 

After a bit, the date changed to just helping the monsterlings. Grillby and Undyne showed Damini how to do a super strong and stylish flame throw (Grillby added little flames to her ball after she rolled it). Papyrus let Narkio give him a good luck bite and Nile gave her a good luck high five before a roll, and Sans and Alphys helped Rinan throw a relaxed perfect strike!

 

No one paid attention to the score as the game ended and the group headed off to Undyne and Alphy’s place to tuck the three sleepy monsterlings into bed and play board games.


	38. Chapter 38

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The monsters have a fun quadruple date.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really should apologize for taking so long to update. Now that I am teaching again, a lot of my time is just getting sucked away- perhaps you can guess why I make Sans and Grillby such workaholics.
> 
> I really am trying to finish the next chapter tonight before more teaching and labwork!
> 
>  
> 
> As for the chapter- hope you enjoy some silly Dating Game style questions, a bit of info on our monsters, and a bit of Red and Violet. The next update should be a last blast of Summer fun before the Fall for the monsters.

While tucking the kids in, Undyne’s phone kept going off, and she kept frantically texting with who appeared to be Ugly. Papyrus and Sans were finishing up reading a round of Fluffy Bunny goes to the beach-Sans appreciated having someone else trying to do the voices with him for a change.

 

“everything ok with those two?” Sans asked after what seemed to be the fifth text in under a minute.

 

“They want to know if they can bring Red and his human girlfriend Violet.”

 

“…Oh those two are so cute together….but only if you want…I mean it is your house…”

 

Whenever Violet came by and Red was tending the bar, the bird monster would work extra hard and show off in front of her. His chest feathers would puff out, and would sometimes make a funny squawking sound whenever she came by.

 

“THEY ARE SO ADORABLE. UNDYNE LET THEM COME!”

 

Undyne kicked the floor. Everyone stared. The fish monster’s face turned a bit red.

 

“Huh, oh no I said they could come ages ago.” Undyne’s voice seemed strained and she looked ready to punch someone.

 

“I just can’t believe-.” Undyne was still tucking the kids in. She looked like she wanted to scream but was stopping herself. Alphys frowned, her scales furrowed into a wrinkle.

 

“Err-some humans just grind my gears.” Undyne clenched her phone in her hand, and Grillby heard a slight cracking sound. Wow.

 

Grillby knew that before coming to the surface Undyne had been an avid human hater-but he thought now that she knew humans things would be different.

 

Red was one of Grillby’s oldest friends, and he was happy that the guy had found someone who made him happy-it should not matter if they were human. The group finished Fluffy Bunny and as they left the kids, Grillby decided he should say something.

 

“…Um…Undyne…Red is a friend…his girlfriend is very nice…has she done something wrong to you that you dislike her?...”

 

The other monsters turned in an instant, Undyne’s eye opened wide,

 

“OH WOW NO! No- that is not what I meant. Some human guy was giving her and Red trouble at the bar- and it pisses me off.”

 

“…what…”

 

“Apparently Dom and Greater Dog kicked him out, but Violet and Red are pretty upset.”

 

“W-what happened?”

 

“Not sure yet- Caspian has trouble typing with his fins, so he’s slow with the texting.”

 

The monsters poured into the living room, wondering what could have happened. A few minutes later, the doorbell rang.

 

Ugly looked really happy when Undyne opened the door.

 

“Alright! Hey cousin! Who is ready to have a fun, relaxing couple’s night!”

 

Something must be wrong because Ugly was usually never that spirited- an uncharacteristic wide smile was plastered on his face.

 

Bunny, Ugly, Red, and Violet were at the door. Grillby had never gotten a close look at Violet before- the tall pale human wore jeans and a low cut top, and medium length red hair that seemed to have been dyed and styled. She also had on a necklace that Grillby was pretty sure Red had given her, a blue super shiny beaded one. One holdover of being a bird was that they liked to give each other sparkly trinkets-but honestly that worked for humans, too. When Red had been flirting with her, he had kept pushing bottle caps to her- which at fist the human had found off-putting, but it had been a good conversations starter.

 

Violet usually was laughing and joking and Grillby remembered she liked human sports-and had even gotten Red into it. The monster was even wearing an Ebott Eagles jersey tonight.

 

Red’s feathers were ruffled and he had a bandage on the top of his head. Violet had a red mark on her arm and looked like she had been crying.

 

“…are you ok?...” Grillby ran up to Red.

 

Red sighed.

 

“Well, um, I will be ok. Greater Dog and Dom threw a guy that was harassing Violet out-but let’s just say that Asgore won’t be asking me to be an ambassador to human-monster relations anytime soon.”

 

Red looked downcast.

 

Violet shook her head and explained,

 

“The guy was way over the line-I told him to back off and he grabbed my arm- called me a bitch-”

 

“an insult to humans.” Bunny chimed in before Papyrus could ask.

 

“And then I told him I was dating Red. He insulted Red, and then wouldn’t stop twisting my arm, so Red stood up for me. He used some of his monster magic to turn the spot the guy was standing all black, and then he told the guy to back off.”

 

“oh, so you activated a fight with a human?” Sans looked at Red, eye sockets open wide.

 

In all the timelines Sans had remembered Red being a bit of a pacifist- even when Flowey messed with the bird- Red usually would just took the hit and tried to fly away.

 

“I-I did, but I feel like a bit of a chicken, I- I did not want to hurt him, so I just stood there. He looked scared at first, but then he just started laughing at me. He twisted Violet’s arm-which got me bothered so I tried my strongest attack, but he wouldn’t even let go of your arm- it just made him laugh! Then he shoved me into the bar-it was over in ten seconds! I guess I was lucky Greater Dog and Dom were there to help. I am so sorry Violet, you deserve a guy that can stick up for you.”

 

Humans were a lot less tough than Undyne had imagined them to be, but she supposed feather attacks weren’t exactly their weakness.

 

“Huh-no, Red, it’s ok, that you stood up for me meant a lot, and I don’t want to date some hot headed-jerk.”

 

Grillby excused the phrasing. Violet continued,

 

“Besides, most of the time I don’t have this much trouble with guys.”

 

Violet looked like she might be lying.

 

Red sighed, Violet gave him a friendly shoulder punch.

 

“Red-I promise it’s fine!”

 

“So, uh Grillby, when the human knocked me into the bar, I um, might have accidently broken your vase with my head. So uh- I can get you another one.”

 

“…Do not worry about it… I am sorry that something like that happened to you…at my bar…” Grillby wished he had been there- no one usually fought once he sparked up his flames- and it kept a calm easygoing environment.

 

“Don’t worry about the customers Grillby- it was such a quick fight most did not even notice with the karaoke going on. Me and Bun, didn’t notice till we saw Greater Dog and Dom escort the guy out of the room. Anyway, enough of this, I heard there was a board game to play, sound good Red? Violet?”

 

The two seemed eager to do something else.

 

**********************

 

Grillby looked at the human board game in front of him- a pink and black box with what looked like a human couple- with pink souls for eyes?- getting married in front of three other human couples who seemed to be pouting.

 

“So let me get this straight, cousin. This board game involves answering questions the same as your partner. And for a subset of questions everyone else can try to guess to also get points?” Ugly leaned over the sofa staring at the cards.

 

“YUP! And the couple that gets the most points is the ULTIMATE winner at relationships for the night!” Undyne looked ready to win-her eye was filled with determination.

 

“I-I even made crowns!” Alphys held up said crowns, which seemed to be made with popsicle sticks, plastic gemstones, and glitter.

 

“Th-the kids helped.”

 

One of the gold sparkly crowns started to break apart as Alphys picked it up- the glue had not set. She hastily stuck it back together.

 

“U-uhm you also win-uh- this bag of chips!”

 

The jumbo bag of cheese-flavored chips was a bit more enticing. A second opened bag of chips and several sodas and beers were also served.

 

Nile happily shared a grape soda with Papyrus, while the rest went for the beers.

 

“So-first things first! Pre-game trash talking-Me and Alphs are gonna win because we are the ultimate power couple brains and brawn!” Undyne shot a spear into her ceiling and Alphys put a clawed finger to her glasses.

 

Sans noticed the ceiling had lots of tiny holes in it.

 

Papyrus shook his skull, and Nile put a hand on her hip.

 

_“PAPYRUS AND I ARE PUZZLE SOLVING EXPERTS! AND BY EXTENSION A HUMAN BOARD GAME STANDS NO CHANCE!”_

 

“ALSO, DESPITE ONLY DATING A WEEK-WE ALREADY CAN CLAIM ENCYCLOPEDIC KNOWLEDGE ABOUT EACH OTHER THANKS TO OUR ADHERENCE TO THE DATING GUIDE BOOK! NYEH HEH HEH!”

 

Nile and Papyrus locked arms. Dang they were the ultimate dating formation. Papyrus let out a “NYEH HEH HEH!” A bandage from Papyrus’s mask curse swatted him in the face.

 

“L-look that may be the case, but when it comes to d-dating Undyne and I have the advantage o-of having dated the longest! Statistically- we should know the most about each other!” Alphys looked pretty confident.

 

“Nope-me and-hic*-Caspy are gonna win! He’s got a good memory, and I-I know more gossip about you than you could imagine- we are hic* gonna steal all your points!” Bunny wasn’t drunk, but she wasn’t sober either.

 

“Yeah-your going down cousin!” Ugly pointed a fin at Undyne.

 

“Not if me and Red have anything to say about it!” Violet shouted while Red nodded.

 

The table turned to look at Grillby and Sans,

 

“well grillbz is a bartender, so he hears a lot of secrets. and besides-the two of us are like a tibia to a fibia, a dog to a bone a-”

 

“…moth to a flame!...er- um…no…wait…like fire and gasoline!...”

 

“U-uh well, for you two I think it could work! L-let’s start” Alphys giggled.

 

Alphys got out a list of cards and a board that had a little token for each player.

 

“T-These cards were written for humans so as you read them you may need to modify them a bit. We are going to s-start with a few of the easy questions!”

 

“Ok PUNKS! Here is the first question. We’ll do youngest first. Papyrus -if Nile were to be an animal what animal would she want to be?”

 

Papyrus and Nile locked eyes and nodded. And each wrote down their answer while the other teams also wrote down an answer. Sans wondered how the two were this synchronous already.

 

“OK, Papyrus what is you guess?”

 

“YOU WERE CORRECT THAT THIS QUESTION WOULD BE A SIMPLE ONE. NILE’S FAVORITE ANIMAL IS THE GREEN BEE-EATER- _Merops Orientalis_ A BIRD NATIVE TO EGPYT THAT IS AS INTELLIGENT AS IT IS MAGNIFICENT.”

 

Papyrus tried to wink in a smooth manner, closing one eye socket and slowly turning to Nile. It is more difficult to wink and look sexy than one might imagine, but despite the cringe-worthy motion that made Sans choke on his beer, Nile seemed to love it.

 

Everyone flipped their answers over. Most people had written cat or dog, Red had guessed “bird cause they are the best,” but Nile had indeed written “Green Bee eater.”

 

“AWESOME Paps! 2 points for Nile and Papyrus, and One point for Red and Violet!”

 

“Ok Red-our turn-what is Violet’s favorite color.”

 

Everyone guessed violet or red. But Red and Violet got the only point, as it was, in fact, blue.

 

Alphys and Undyne’s turn-

 

“OK ALPHYS- IF UNDYNE HAD TO PICK WHICH OF YOU WAS THE BETTER COOK, WHO WOULD SHE SAY?”

 

Alphys started to sweat. There was a correct answer, and then there was what Undyne might think.

 

Undyne and Alphys revealed their cards- Undyne had written Alphys and Alphys had written Undyne. Romantic, but not ideal for scoring points.

 

Bunny and Ugly’s turn:

 

“ok bunny, if caspian could go the mountains or the beach what would he prefer?”

 

“hmmmm….the beach * **hic** cause we’ve been stuck in snowy mountains our whole lives! And cause he is a fish!”

 

“You know me babe! I am the best fish!” Undyne opened her mouth, but Alphys covered it. Giver them their moment.

 

Ok, Grillby’s and Sans’ turn- everyone else had gotten pretty easy questions. So this should be ok.

 

“So, uh, Grillby, what is Sans’ favorite type of music?”

 

Grillby thought of Sans’ music- a mixture of trombone songs, internet gags, electronic, and techno. Grillby wondered if Sans even knew what his own favorite music was-the skeleton looked a bit unsure.

 

The monsters revealed their answers-Grillby had guessed Jazz. Papyrus had guessed ‘loud garbage music.’ Most everyone else had guessed a completely random genre of music-from metal to rock to k-pop.

 

Sans revealed- ‘songs about fire.”

 

Grillby and Sans smiled- although they did not get a point.

 

A few more rounds of easy questions went through-Undyne preferred physical labor over mental labor, Grillby liked Red Velvet cupcakes, despite them being a food trend, Ugly liked designer hats-the group was learning a lot about everyone else:

 

Surprising absolutely no monster, Papyrus’ favorite type of food was pasta.

 

“Ok we can’t give everyone in the whole room a point for pasta. So only a point for whoever said farfalline.”

 

“i feel like i should get a point for farfalle.”

 

“WHILE THEY ARE TOTALLY DIFFERENT NOODLES, IT WAS PRETTY CLOSE!”

 

“O-ok, how about half a point?”

 

The group laughed as Alphys awarded Sans half a point. The game kept going.

 

“W-Would Red rather be free to go anywhere, but be hunted, o-o-or be confined to a house for the rest of his life, but be s-safe?”

 

For a free spirit like Red, it had to be free, another point for Violet and Red.

 

“…If Alphys could be any…other career…what would it be?…”

 

It was anime creator, a point for Alph-dyne.

 

_“BUNNY, WOULD YOU EVER HOLD A BUTTERFLY OR INSECT IN YOUR HAND?”_

 

She would not want to. Point for Ugly and Bunny.

 

“…That would be magical, butterflies are so nice… and always on flowers…I think if I could be an animal it might be a butterfly…”

 

Sans imagined Grillby the butterfly- an elegant crimson red fluttering from flower to flower. He felt like he was more of a caterpillar.

 

_“PAPYRUS- YOU GET ALONG WITH BUTTERFLIES, YOU SHOULD HELP HIM OUT!”_

A few more questions came and went. Sans did not know Grillby’s favorite drink was Sunset Rum, Paps knew that Nile had never eaten frog’s legs (LIKE FROGGITS, NEVER!), Violet admitted to eating a whole pizza herself before, and Ugly admitted he liked to haggle even if he knew it was unfair.

 

“OK SANS AND GRILLBY, YOU TWO CAN FINALLY GET A WHOLE POINT, THIS IS EASY!”

 

Grillby and Sans still only had the half a point.

 

“WHEN IS GRILLBY’S BIRTHDAY?”

 

When is Grillby’s birthday? Oh crap, Sans had no idea.

 

Sans guessed Christmas. Papyrus looked alarmed.

 

“…eh…no…but it is ok Sans…”

 

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN OK-YOU CAN’T LET MY LAZY BROTHER NOT KNOW YOUR BIRTHDAY.”

 

“…Sans I am so embarrassed, I do not… know yours either, when is yours?...”

 

“it is ok grillby, i don’t really know that it is my real birthday”

 

“GRILLBY MY BROTHER’S BIRTHDAY IS THIS MONTH! WE CELEBRATE IT SEPTEMBER 24th”

 

“…wait…really…that is so soon!...Sans I am so sorry…I need to get you a present still…”

 

“oh wow you’re a libra, too!” Violet hi-fived Sans.

 

“a what?” Sans was always up for hi-fives but did not know what this one was for.

 

Violet looked embarrassed,

 

“Oh, just a human tradition, in the Western Zodiac the rough month you are born in corresponds to a star constellation, and some humans like to believe it tells you something about your personality-like what elemental type represents you. I don’t really believe in it, but it is fun! Um, Libras are known for being fair, cooperative, and having a strong sense of justice. Oh and for being gracious.”

 

Papyrus and Alphys giggled.

 

“hey, i can be gracious when I want to be!” Sans pointe da ketchup stained finger into the air.

 

Undyne snorted.

 

“so what element am i? fire?” Sans hoped it would be fire.

 

“Sorry, but Libra is an air sign-you like to use your mind! Tell me what Grillby is and I can tell you if you are compatible by the stars! Um, not that I believe any of this.”

 

Violet blushed a bit, but seemed happy. Sans wanted to cheer her up, and supposed it was harmless.

 

“oh, ok, let’s see if me and grillbz are compatable. grillby when is your birthday?”

 

“…Uh, it’s Febuary 14th…”

 

Violet’s eye’s really lit up.

 

“Ok, ok, so you are an Aquarius!”

 

“…wait…maybe this human start chart does not work for monsters…I do not think my element would be water…”

 

“Well, oddly enough Aquarius’ element is air, like Sans. Not a perfect match, but a one of the best! Also your birthday falls on a human holiday-Valentines day! How romantic!”

 

“so the stars say we are meant to be together-and grillbz didn’t even have to ask them!”

 

The game kept going. Grillby wanted to ask Violet about Valentine’s day but everyone else seemed happy to keep playing the game.

 

********************

A few drinks had gone around, and people were laughing and the first bag of chips had been emptied. Grillby had loosened his bowtie and given it to Sans. The elemental had had a few more beers and had a healthy yellow glow.

 

“Hehee…O-ok, enough of the warm-up questions! Time for so-some of the juicy ones! J-Just change it a bit if it doesn’t work for monsters!”

 

Violet picked up a card for Papyrus and blushed.

 

“Oh, m, we really jumped in difficulty here. Ok, Papyrus-have you ever had to wear clothes to cover up a hickey-um wait… Can skeleton’s get hickeys? OK how do I make that work?”

 

Red jumped in-

 

“Papyrus, have you ever worn clothes to cover up a glowing soul?”

 

A blushing Papyrus answered yes, thinking back to the week before but he and Nile got the point.

 

“O-Ok, Violet have you ever gone commando?”

 

“Haha, that is even worse than the last one, but yes.”

 

“What does that mean?” Red looked curious.

 

“I’ll tell you later.”

 

“…Oh…it just… means not to wear underwear…”

 

Everyone looked at Grillby-the elemental was glowing rather blue.

 

“…Look it is just common knowledge… and it can be fun…”

 

The room chuckled.

 

Grillby might have normally been a bit embarassed, but he was a bit tipsy at this point, and did not really care.

 

“ok, undyne, have you ever skinny dipped?” Sans smiled at Undyne.

 

Alphys had answered yes, and got the point as Undyne answered.

 

“every night!”

 

“Sounds *hic fun!” Bunny slouched into Ugly.

 

The room chuckled.

 

“OK, Ugly, have you ever gotten a tattoo?” Undyne had no idea.

 

“Unfortunately yes.” Ugly blushed.

 

“oh wow, Caspy, I had no idea! Let me see?”

 

No point for Ugly and Bunny, but Ugly showed off a rather unfortunate tattoo of a fish-lady on his lower back, and a tattoo of a skull with a snake sliding through the eyesockets on his upper fin.

 

“…That’s a… cute tattoo…”

 

“Huh, you like fish ladies?”

 

“…No the skeleton…Maybe someday they…can invent tattoos for fire-people…I’d get one of Sans… on my chest…” Grillby had always wanted a tattoo, but it just was not meant to be.

 

Sans blushed pretty intensely,

 

“i could get a fire tattoo of you, grillbz.”

 

Grillby posed rather dramatically.

 

 

“SANS, I THINK YOU MIGHT HAVE SOME TROUBLE.”

 

“actually, i think it would work if you got it under the periosteum.”

 

 

“Ok, Sans before you go get matching tattoos, you have to answer a question on Grillby. Oops, this is an awkward one. What do you think the craziest thing Grillby has ever done in bed is?” Red looke da bit embarrassed.

 

“woah-that is a bit much?”

 

“…Relax Sans…It’s fine…”

 

“well, ok”

 

Sans had guessed soul sex. Grillby had written a three way.

 

“…And that is why I would appreciate it if you guys helped keep those crazy lizards away form me…I swear…”

 

Everyone chuckled.

 

Nile had never gotten drunk, Alphys had totally bought lingerie, Bunny had never played strip poker, and Sans had once teleported when drunk and gotten lost in Waterfall. Red had been arrested-

 

“AND the story is for another time!” Red insisted.

 

“I arrested you though. I mean you were wandering Snowden in-” Undyne smiled mischievously.

 

“IT was a DARE-AND the Story is for ANOTHER time.” Red put his wing down on the table.

 

“Heh, heh! Aright F-final round!” Alphys decided to keep the peace.

 

“Nile, what is Papyrus’ favorite position?”

 

_“OH, WELL THAT’S EASY, HE LOVES R-”_

 

“i have to run to the bathroom, right now to magically vomit.”

 

“Wow-another point for Nile and Papyrus! You two are tied with Bunny and Ugly!”

 

Bunny and Ugly looked determined. They had missed a few questions, but, Bunny had stolen a few points.

 

“Ok, Violet , what chore is Red worst with?”

 

“Well, there are a few, but the worst is probably folding laundry. But it is ok, I hate vacuuming.”

 

Red smiled, he had written dishes- he had to use his claws, and get them all soapy, ugh.

 

Bunny had written that, too, for a steal. Now her and Ugly were in the lead.

 

“ok undyne, have you ever faked being sick so you could skip school or work?”

 

Nope, another point for Alphys and Undyne.

 

“A Royal Guard never takes a break! Ok, Ugly, if Bunny had to name her favorite trait about you, what would it be?”

 

“uh, I guess I’m funny?”

 

Bunny’s ears drooped to her head-

 

“I *hic wrote handsome.”

 

Ugly blushed, and the two sighed, they were now tied with Papyrus and Nile.

 

Tension was rising, it was the last question and to avoid a tie-breaker, someone had to steal a point.

 

“Ok, Sans, what is one thing you think Grillby would say is your biggest flaw?”

 

Sans frowned.

 

“uh, i can be lazy?”

 

Undyne, Alphys, Bunny, and Red had guessed that. Nile, Violet, and Ugly refrained.

 

“OOH, OOH, I HAVE A STEAL!”

 

Papyrus had written something else-overprotective.

 

Grillby frowned,

 

The elemental had written down “overprotective.”

 

Ooph. Overprotective. Sans supposed he could be a bit like that-and enough that Papyrus thought so too. Sans slumped in the chair.

 

“Ok, ok, well we’ve been playing a bit, and right now we have Papyrus and Nile in the lead-you guys weren’t kidding about encyclopedic knowledge of each other! I think before we crown you two winners, you need to answer one more random question!”

 

“Papyrus would you ever go sky diving, bungee jumping, or parasailing?”

 

Papyrus squinted his eyes, and began to sweat. What were those things…he looked at Nile, she looked clueless, too. Papyrus tried to cooly write an answer. Nile guessed ‘no’…

 

Correct!

 

Alphys and Undyne hi-fived them, and Grillby and Sans (the lowest score) placed the popsicle stick crown on the two’s heads. Papyrus’ bandaged curse attacked his crown and knocked it into his hand. Nile’s fell apart immediately, the glue still had not set- so Papyrus gave her his.

 

“OK- SO NOW THAT WE HAVE WON, I ADMIT I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THAT MEANT. I DON’T KNOW WHAT BUNJEES ARE BUT I WOULD NOT WANT TO JUMP OVER THEM, AS IT COULD FRIGHTEN THEM, AND WHAT IS A PARASAIL?”

 

The skeleton naturally turned to Alphys-who usually could answer all his questions.

 

“U-Um well I think I s-saw parasailing in an anime-humans jump into the ocean with a sort of sail behind them, and ride through ocean storms while sharks chase them.”

 

Violet started to laugh,

 

“Actually, it is not usually that dangerous! You put a sail on your back and get connected to a boat. As the boat races forward the wind lifts you into the air-it is amazing like flying-well not that I would know” Violet smiled at Red.

 

“For the other two, one is jumping off a cliff attached to a springy rope, and the last is jumping out of a plane and pulling a chute so that you can land safely. They are a bit dangerous because if something goes wrong you could die.”

 

“WELL-I WOULD LOVE TO GO, I AM NOT SCARED OF WIND OR HEIGHTS! NOT ONE BIT!”

 

“Yeah! Let’s go! Let’s show those heights whose boss!” Undyne looked excited. Alphys looked less excited.

 

“M-Maybe just the parasailing for me.”

 

“I have gone parasailing before, my cousin runs a tour- if you are interested we could do it. Although-Red I don’t know if it would be very fun for you?”

 

Red was not an amazing flyer- but he could. Now that they weren’t stuck Underground the guy had gotten a bit better-stretching his wings to show off in front of Violet- and commute to work in record time, even if he wobbled a bit with each flap.

 

“I would love it-I’d love to see how humans try to fly! Flying-its just-well there’s no way to describe it-you would love it, Violet.” Red smiled, his beak curling at the corners.

 

Grillby noticed how happy Red looked-what had happened to the quiet guy who leaned on the bar and sang along to jukebox tunes?

 

Violet really wanted Red’s friends to like her- she did not have man human ones…and since Fall was starting up, it might be good for her family’s business.

 

“It is fun- grab a few beers, set out to sea, enjoy the ocean view. If you are serious I’ll set it up!”

 

“ooh, parasailing sounds glamorous! Just think, me and you in cute swimsuits sailing through the air!” Bunny turned to Caspian.

 

“Har har! I’d be a flying fish.” The pair nuzzled adorably.

 

Nile, Papyrus, Alphys, Undyne, Ugly, and Bunny agreed to go in a soulbeat.

 

Sans had to admit it sounded kind of fun- soaring through the air-but there is no way Grillby would want-

 

“…wow… that sounds like the most hardcore thing… water beneath you…wind trying to blow you out…but still…flying…wow…I know it is stupid…but I want to try…”

 

Sans turned to Grillby,

 

“wait- seriously? i mean it sounds cool, but it is also the perfect combination of things that can kill you and I mean what if it did not work and-”

 

Sans looked at Grillby. The elemental’s flames dropped a bit-was Sans stepping over bounds again and being overly protective?

 

“-and i would be happy to go if you wanted.”

 

Grillby hugged Sans. Sans had no idea what he had gotten into.

 

“I mean, the boat does get pretty wet-the wind from the sea tends to spray saltwater on you.” Violet looked a bit concerned.

 

“…I can wear a raincoat…trust me, a few water droplets won’t get me…” Grillby confidently nodded his head and Red and Undyne hi-fived him.

 

Violet texted her cousin Marco, if they could get three more to come they would get a special discount. Nile got Apple to come, and Undyne got Doggo and LD (The monsterlings were too young, so grandma would watch them at the beach).

 

************************

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ohh, did Grillby really realize what he signed up for? What is he thinking?


	39. In which we have a fun time at the beach

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The monsters go to the beach to go parasailing. Sans is getting his magic back, but he wishes he's get it back sooner!

“…Sans, what did I agree to last night?…we are going to the beach right?...”

 

Grillby was currently putting on a black swimsuit on that he was borrowing from Papyrus. Sans tried not to blush as the elemental slipped it on. Grillby noticed and tried to flex in it.

 

Unsurprisingly the fire monster did not own a suit already-swimming in lava did not usually require one-honestly even flame resistant clothes just burned off after a while. Obviously Grillby was going to wear the dumb yellow raincoat near the water, but he wanted to fit in if they were tanning or just playing volleyball or something.

 

“well, you agreed to go to the beach, and um, you decided parasailing would be fun, and that you could do it without getting hurt, and i am going to try to be less protective of you, so we are going.”

 

Sans had already changed into a blue pair of swimming trunks and a tank t-shirt with ‘coolish dude’ sharpee’d onto it.

 

The skeleton was downing his fifth bottle of ketchup and hugging Catsup. He seemed to be attempting to use his gravity magic on a few ketchup bottle caps- the bottle caps glowed with the crackling black static but failed to move. Instead, the cat got bored and batted them to the area under the bed, and then proceeded to have an epic cat battle where he flung them around the room.

 

 

“well thanks for the help, buddy, but i kind of wanted to do it without you.” Sans let some magic build up in his hand, he held it for a few seconds, but it simply dissipated, almost like it was retreating back into him.

 

Sans sighed and slumped over-

 

-and then popped in and out of existence three feet to the left- black crackling static magic accompanying the feat.

 

“…Oh Sans!...”

 

“huh?”

 

“...Sans…you short cutted…”

 

Sans smiled and his smile went wide.

 

The skeleton sheepishly teleported a few feet on the bed, and then behind Grillby to give him a hug, and then gleefully did a series of victory short cuts around the room.

 

Sans talked between teleports,

 

“so, i don’t think” Sans was on the nightstand.

 

“i should do more than a few miles” Sans was under the bed.

 

“at once, since i need to burn through” Sans was on the treadmill.

 

“gaster’s magic, but to get to work i could just do several” Sans was behind the lava lamp.

 

“ smaller hops-and i probably should not take anyone with me, but i am so happy it is back!”

 

Sans ended in front of a very dizzy fire elemental.

 

It was nice to see Sans so happy, but all the black crackling magic filling the room was making Grillby’s head fill with a horrible static noise that was growing increasingly louder.

 

“well, i would prefer having the gravity magic for parasailing, but i guess this makes me feel a tiny bit better.”

 

“…So, I think I must have been a bit tipsy last night…what is parasailing?...” Grillby rubbed his now aching head. The static noise was at least fading, though.

 

Sans pulled up a video of it on his laptop-the skeleton had found as many videos of the activity last night-he had had some trouble sleeping- and if the two were going to do it, he wanted to be prepared.

 

The video started with a man standing in the front of a boat and talking about how they had the best, safest equipment, and what a great family activity parasailing was. A smiling pair of attractive humans went out onto a boat, smiling and waving on he deck.

 

The first human strapped them into a series of belts and a little swing-like device. Grillby watched as a multicolored rainbow parasail filled with wind and started to lift the humans into the air-above the ocean. The camera mostly focused on the zoomed in humans smiling and looking happy.  Grillby gasped as one human girl dipped their toes into the ocean. The giggling pair waved at the camera as they rose into the air again. It was death-defying!

 

Still the way they glided through the air was magical. Grillby smiled as he imagined soaring through the sky.

 

“do you still want to do it? do you think it is safe? i mean i think it is safe, but now that you see it, i mean uh- well-yeah.” Sans finished noncommittally.

 

Grillby looked at Sans, the usually easygoing skeleton was failing miserably at looking nonchalant. Grillby took a deep breath.

 

“…Sans…I think I can do this…It looks like I might get some amount of spray from the boat, but I should be good if I bring a rain coat… and if the humans do not drop me into the ocean…you need to worry about me less Sans…I am a perfectly capable monster…I even used to be a bit more adventurous …I dated a water elemental once!...so a tiny bit of water should be no problem…”

 

Grillby noticed Sans looked nervous, still, but was trying to look like he was cool with it.

 

“…Sans are you ok?… you seem unhappy…”

 

“oh, yeah-i am just uh-uh-a bit scared of heights is all.”

 

“…Sans…when we rode the mules into the canyon…I was more scared of heights than you…are you ok?...”

 

Sans looked down- he needed to be honest.

 

“i am real sorry that you think i’ve been a bit overprotective. i guess you just got rained on like crazy on vacation, and that time your went into the pool to rescue the egg. the idea of you hovering over the ocean by a tiny rope is making me a bit nervous, especially since my gravity magic is being useless right now.”

 

Sans tried to use his magic to lift Grillby up, the elemental’s feet glowed, but it was still the black glow of Gaster’s magic. The elemental lifted about an inch off the ground before Sans had to drop him. Sans slumped onto the bed.

 

“…Aww Sans…I am sorry…I guess…I have been getting injured a lot lately…but well…I hate that you guys feel like you can’t go to the beach or do things about water because of me…we’re friends with a family of fish monsters!-I want them to have fun! I can go!...a boat should be safe…and I want you to have fun without worrying about me not having fun…so, promise me you will try your best not to worry… if it is not safe I wont do it when we get there…”

 

“ok, i-i hate making promises, but i promise to let you trust your own judgment about what is safe.”

  
Sans took a moment to breathe and looked right into Grillby’s glasses. The skeleton managed a genuine smile.

 

“…Oh Sans….We are going to have a blast!...”

 

Grillby lifted Sans into a hug and the two nuzzled.

 

“yeah, me and grillbz flying through the sky on the surface who would h-

 

-Papyrus and Nile knocked on the door, perfect timing as usual. The two were suited up and had applied several globs of sunscreen, sunglasses, and had matching floppy beach hats.

 

“YOU TWO LAZYBONES NEED TO GET MOVING! IT IS ALREADY NINE AM AND YOU AREN’T READY YET!”

 

Nine AM would normally conflict with Papyrus’ work schedule, but it was apparently Labor Day weekend, some sort of National not working holiday that extended to Monday. Grillby had let the restaurant close for Sunday-Monday, but today Beaks, Jiggles, Stan, and Dom had wanted the hours. It was not ideal for business, but he did not want to force people to work on a holiday, either. Either way, it was an excuse to go out and do something.

 

 

“…We are both ready…we are going for the minimalist look…” Grillby and Sans opted for just bathing suits and t-shirts- the yellow raincoat and boots were tucked in a beach bag and ready to go.

 

“oh and bro, check it out.” Sans short cutted around Papyrus.

 

Nile’s eye socket’s widened.

 

_“AMAZING SANS! I DID NOT KNOW YOU COULD DO SOMETHING SO COOL!”_

_“_ heh thanks nile.”

The skeleton did another shortcut to be in front of her.

Papyrus looked less impressed.

 

“SANS! USE GASTER’S MAGIC FOR JUST LITTLE STUFF! IT IS UNSTABLE!” Papyrus grabbed Sans with his gravity pull, which prevented Sans from short cutting back to Grillby. The skeletons locked eye sockets.

 

“that’s what i’m doing, bro. using it for small shortcuts. if i only ever do bone attacks, it will take forever to get rid of his magic!”

 

Papyrus was clearly unhappy about it, but he sighed.

 

“OK, OK, JUST DON’T BE RECKLESS.” Papyrus released Sans’ soul.

 

There was an awkward moment, where the two stared at each other, Sans rubbing his soul-Papyrus did not usually use his magic against Sans. Grillby and Nile looked at each other awkwardly.

 

“…Uh…Do you have your camera Sans…”

 

“nope, let me get it.”

 

Sans short cutted two feet away into the closet and came out with the camera to Papyrus’ stern gaze of disapproval.

 

“OK, LET’S GO BEFORE SANS FORGETS HOW TO USE HIS LEGS.”

 

Papyrus, Grillby, Nile and Sans went downstairs, and heard a knock on the door. Sans short-cutted to it, annoying Papyrus further.

 

“SANS!”

 

Sans opened the door to reveal Apple the skeleton was also joining them-along with a tiny skeleton-presumably her kid sister, Curlz.

 

Apple was pretty short, and her sister was absolutely tiny, standing behind her and hugging her leg. Even Sans thought he had been taller as a monsterling.

 

The skeleton looked like she was doing her best to be like her big sister, wearing a matching one piece floral print bathing suit- although hers had a little skirt on it. Curlz, just like Apple, had taped earrings to her head, although instead of hoops, she had earrings shaped like pink cats. She also carried what looked like a beach towel with blue cats on it.

 

_“Hello, Py and Nile, um I hope you don’t mind, my folks would not let me leave without taking Curlz along. Curlz, you’ve met Nile before, this is her boyfriend Papyrus.”_

Curlz peeled herself off Apple’s leg and gave Nile a hug, and Papyrus a quick handshake and then hid behind Apple again.

 

“NICE TO MEET YOU! IT IS NO PROBLEM, BUT WE MAY HAVE TO MAKE TWO TRIPS, SINCE THE CAR ONLY FITS FIVE.”

 

_“NICE TO SEE YOU AGAIN CURLZ! DID YOU KNOW PAPYRUS HAS A CAT NAMED CATSUP?”_

Curlz poked her head out. Catsup had dutifully followed Sans down the stairs-the big fuzzball did not love company, but when the tiny skeleton held out a hand in the universal ‘free pets’ sign- the cat waddled right over.

 

_“And Py is this your brother and his boyfriend?”_

“YUP, THIS IS SANS AND GRILLBY. IT IS FUNNY. GRILLBY FOUND CATSUP, BUT THE CAT LOVES SANS SO MUCH, THAT WE ADPOTED HIM, I THINK THERE WAS SOMETHING ABOUT SANS THAT THE LAZY FLUFFBALL COULD RELATE WITH, NYEH HEH HEH.”

 

Sans shot Papyrus a look,

 

“…Nice to meet you…”

 

“hello. nice to meet you apple and curlz.”

 

This was Sans’ first time properly meeting other skeletons, he kind of wanted to make a good impression. Apple shook his hand,

 

_It is great to meet you Sans and Grillby, Papyrus told me all about you! Say hi Curlz!”_

Besides Curlz being tiny, Apple was only a tiny bit taller than Sans- it was nice to not be surrounded by giants like Undyne and Toriel for once.

“ _hello!”_ Curlz ran up to Sans and Grillby, shook their hands, giggled, and then ran back to pet Catsup, who was now purring into her hand.

 

“SO, IF I NEED TO MAKE TWO TRIPS, WE NEED TO GET GOING RIGHT AWAY- THE BOAT IS SCHEDULED TO LEAVE AT TEN, SO I AM ACTAULLY WORRIED NOW.”

 

“oh, that’s ok bro, i can shortcut again.”

 

Papyrus went from looking frustrated, so simply looking concerned.

 

“look, bro, I’m sorry for pushing your buttons, but i’ve been doing it all morning and i’m fine. i’ll do it in small intervals if it makes you happier.”

 

Papyrus fought the internal battle- a struggle between worrying about Sans and worrying about being prompt and on time for parasailing. Nile and Grillby smiled at him, he could tell they wanted him to loosen up.

 

“NYEH HEH, OK SANS, I GUESS I NEED TO BE LESS WORRIED ABOUT YOU, SORRY!”

 

With that, everyone loaded into the car- which had a trunk packed with an umbrella, several coolers, and a beach blanket.

 

Sans waved everyone off, and grabbed the raincoat bag from Grillby- and with a nod from Papyrus, he jumped into the air-only to disappear in a static crackle.

 

Apple and Curlz gasped.

 

_“Wow! Py, is that what you meant by short-cut, he can just teleport?”_

_“that was so cool!”_ Curlz seemed impressed and Apple nodded along.

 

_“wow, wow, Apple, since I can do magic, do you think I'll learn that someday?”_

_“Oh, um maybe Curlz, but no one in our family can do that, so we will have to wait and see. Papyrus, how did he learn that trick?”_

The monsters took off to the beach, Papyrus answering Nile’s, Curlz, and Apple’s questions on what he knew about Sans’ magic. Grillby nodded along, it was basically what Sans had told him-like running a race.

 

******************************

 

_“I LOVE GAS STATIONS, THEY HAVE THE BEST FOOD!”_

Several humans looked in confusion as Nile, Apple, and Curlz ran into the store to get odd flavored chips, jerkies, and junk food.

 

Grillby and Papyrus were left in the car as three undead women terrified local shopkeepers as they asked what the best variety of egg sandwich was. Grillby took the opportunity to talk to Papyrus alone.

 

“…So…Papyrus…are you ok with Sans teleporting around again…”

  

“WELL, NOT REALLY. THE TRUTH IS THAT IN THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS WE HAD GASTER, HIS MAGIC WAS ALREADY ERRATIC. I REMEMBER I HAD THIS POTTED PLANT I LOVED, AND HE ACCIDENTALLY TELEPORTED INTO IT. HE APOLOGIZED AND WE SHOOK IT OFF- BUT…WELL THERE WERE LOTS OF INSTANCES OF THAT THING HAPPENING. SANS IDOLIZES HIM- SO HE DID NOT NOTICE- OR HE BRUSHED IT OFF AS THE GUY BEING ECCENTRIC, BUT I THINK HIS MAGIC WAS PART OF THE REASON HE HAD THAT ACCIDENT WITH THE CORE.”

 

Papyrus stared at the pump, it had filled, he unhooked the nozzle.

 

Grillby decided to change the subject,

 

“…So…uh… Sans birthday is coming up….do you know anything he would like?...”

 

Papyrus’ eyes immediately lit up,

 

“SANS CAN BE A BIT OF A PAIN TO SHOP FOR IN THAT HE NEVER TELLS ANYONE WHAT HE WANTS. AND HE IS SO EASYGOING, SO EVEN IF YOU GET HIM SOMETHING HE DOES NOT LIKE HE WILL PRETEND TO LIKE IT! ONE YEAR I GOT HIM A SUPER CUTE METTATON CROP TOP-I THINK THAT WAS NOT HIS FAVORITE.”

 

“…Yes…Sans seems to dislike crop-tops…”

 

“WAIT! WHAT! I THOUGHT IT WAS JUST METTATON.”

 

Papyrus needed to rethink his gift for this year now.

 

“ANYWAY, I THINK THAT THE BEST BET IS TO GET HIM SOMETHING EITHER SCIENCE OR PUN RELATED, BUT COMING FROM YOU, HE MIGHT APPRECIATE SOMETHING ROMANTIC. SANS TENDS TO GET FLUSTERED EASILY OVER ROMANTIC STUFF, BUT HE LIKES THOSE SORTS OF GESTURES-”

 

Apple, Nile, and Curlz got out of the store, laden with fizzy drinks, ham and egg sandwiches, and what appeared to be salad dressing flavored chips. As Grillby saw the sandwiches, he was happy he could burn up food without tasting it.

 

******************************************************************************

 

Finally, the group got to the beach. It was not the most pristine beach Papyrus had seen near the surface, but it was close to the docks, and there were a few families here, so it must be alright to swim in.

 

Grillby looked at the ocean. Holy Asgore. It was a lot bigger than he had imagined it would be. He had seen plenty of pictures or movies of the beach, but the water was always a distant backdrop, or the characters were always zoomed in-it had looked like a big lake to him. It was stupid, he knew it would be large, but-wow, he did not think there would be what looked like endless water drifting into the horizon on all sides.  

 

It was amazing.

 

Sans, who had short cutted over and had been letting the monsterlings try to bury him with sand, teleported out-and walked up to Grillby who seemed to be frozen in place, about twenty feet from the car.

 

“grillby are you ok?”

 

“…Sans…the ocean is so big… and blue…”

 

“heh, heh. yeah i guess it is tinted a bit for you though to be purple.”

 

“…good point…although to me it is what I know as blue…it is so nice and hot here, too…and it is not even noon…Sans we should have come here sooner, this is amazing!...this is so much better than the Hoover Dam…I want to take all the pictures…”

 

Sans took a picture of Grillby marveling at the ocean.

 

“…So at the beach, we set up a spot and put towels down, and an umbrella, just like we did in the canyon right? how about here?...”

 

“uh, we are still in the dune part, normally monsters get a tiny bit closer to the water.”

 

“…Oh, of course…right…yeah, let’s go closer!...”

 

“but we should wait to set up, since the boat is coming for us in about ten minutes.”

 

“…OK! Well then…let me get ready…do you think we have time to walk up to it real quick for a photo?...”

 

“ _water_ we waiting for?”

 

“…Heh heh… yeah…let’s make a splash!...”

 

“let’s actually not splash-”

 

Grillby hurriedly slipped on the boots, and without raincoat grabbed Sans hand and booked it to the ocean! Undyne and Doggo let out a whoop as the elemental stopped at the edge of the waves with Sans. The waves crashed to the shore, and a tiny layer of water covered Grillby’s boots.

 

The elemental smiled, stole the camera from Sans- taking a selfie with the skeleton.

 

Sans panicked fas Grillby rand him into the shoreline, until he realized that Grillby was having a good time. The elemental seemed to be curious about the water, watching it flow over his boots. The boots started to sink into the sand, and Grillby just took a step to the side.

 

“…Sans! This is so cool!...look at how it crashes, and makes that little foam stuff…and look, tiny ocean animals!... I wish Lava pools had animals...”

 

A small hermit crab popped out of a hole in the sand and scuttles to the left. A second even smaller hermit crab popped out and joined it. Grillby went up to it and carefully crouched over the little fellow.

 

 

“…Sans…it is so tiny…I am naming it Sans junior…”

 

Sans laughed-this was ridiculous.

 

“ok-but the big one has to be grillby junior.”

 

Grillby watched as a seagull came flying towards his tiny crab friend. The elemental puffed up his flames and ran towards it, scaring it away, splashing in the shallow water as he ran.

 

“…Stay away from Sans junior!...”

 

Sans hugged Grillby,

 

“my hero.”

 

“Hey, Grillbz, the birds gotta eat, you know.” Red flapped over, in a blue trunk style bathing suit, Violet behind him in a red bikini.

 

“…Ah…I suppose it’s not like Underground…there is a big ecosystem…” Grillby smiled.

 

“look red, grillbz was just protecting our new favorite animals.”

 

“Hermit crabs are a pretty bad favorite animal.” Violet chimed in,

 

“When they get stressed their limbs fall off, and they constantly have to move from shell to shell as they grow larger, fighting with each other, and avoiding predators.”

 

Sans and Grillby gave Violet a look.

 

“Look, I am just saying the surface has plenty of less unfortunate animals to feel a bond with.”

 

“Like birds!” Red, unconstrained by a shirt and indoor environment flapped into the air and did a flip.

 

“The boat is coming in a few minutes, want to come to the dock?”

 

Sans and Grillby headed to the dock with the other monsters. It was nice to see that Curlz, Damini, Rinan, and Nariko seemed to be already getting along, and were already covered in sand. Doggo and Lesser Dog had arrived in a beat up car Lesser Dog had purchased.

 

“SO, APPLE, THESE ARE MY GOOD FRIENDS LD AND DOGGO.”

 

_“Oh, hello, nice to meet you both!”_

 

Things seemed less tense between the tall skeleton and canine, as Lesser Dog licked Papyrus.

 

“OH HAHA, THAT IS HOW DOG MONSTERS SAY HI.”

 

Sans was pretty sure LD only ever licked Papyrus. Sans glared at LD, who caught his eye and quickly looked away.

 

Doggo politely offered his paw to shake with Apple.

 

“SO UH, LESSER DOG IS SUPER TALENTED, WHEN YOU PET HIM HE GETS THE AMAZING POWER TO GROW.”

 

Doggo demonstrated by petting Lesser Dog, whose neck stretched out.

 

Nariko, Rinan, Damini, and Curlz saw this and immediately crowded Lesser Dog asking if they could pet him. In world record Time Lesser Dog was on his way to the moon. Eventually he pulled himself together.

 

Apple looked pretty impressed,

 

_“Wow, I wish I knew more non-necrotics! Your magic is so cool! I just have boring bone magic!”_

 

“Oh, well, I think bone magic is super neat, woof.” Doggo replied, leaning against the dock in his leopard spotted speedo.

 

 

_“So do you also grow when someone pets you?”_

 

 

“Uh, heh heh, nope. I uh, I can see monsters, but only when they are moving. I am not really magical.”

 

_“Still, wow, it is nice to be out of Little Necropolis.”_

 

 

The group had a fun discussion about magic, which culminated in Undyne, Red, Ugly, Grillby, and Bunny impressing Apple with their various magical abilities. Violet seemed pretty impressed, too, even at Ugly’s really weak bubble attack-which consisted of him opening his mouth to release a single giant bubble that floated harmlessly into the air.

 

As they were goofing around with magic, two humans came up to them, one putting an arm around Violet’s shoulders.

 

******************

 

‘I was wondering when you two sleepy sailors would come by! This is my cousin Marco and his pal David.”

 

Violet’s cousin Marco, was a short, but muscular human who had an impressive tan and a cool tattoo around his wrist. Grillby had seen boat captains in movies before but instead or a hat or a long coat, or a parrot, he simply wore a swimsuit and a polo t-shirt. Marco’s friend David was on board, too, a curly haired man in short jeans shorts and a t-shirt.

 

Marco and David had seen monsters at the beach before, enough times that they did not seem surprised to see them showing off magic. Marco and David glazed over the sentient fire, dino, bird, rabbit, dog, and undead section of the group-but when they saw Ugly, Undyne, Damini, Rinan, and Cordelia their eyes lit up, their mouth’s opened, and Marco grabbed Violet’s arm.

 

“Wait, Violet, you did not tell us you were friends with a whole family of merpeople! Oh my goodness, oh my goodness!”

 

“Uh, well, yeah, Undyne and Caspian here are coming to parasail, and uh Mrs. Cordelia is going to watch the grandkids.”

 

“Ocean Adventures is going to be so jealous when they hear merpeople booked out tour.” David practically jumped for joy.

 

“Merpeople?” Undyne looked confused.

 

Cordelia smiled,

 

“ A human word for fish monsters. I am curious, what do humans think of us?” Cordelia had not met many humans yet.

 

“Excuse my cousin, he has been obsessed with the myth of mermaids since he was a little kid-” Violet did not want the monsters to feel put on the spot.

 

“Woah, woah! Violet, they are standing right in front of you and you call them a myth! Rude! Human stories about merpeople are about a fantastic people who come on to sailor’s ships, enchanting them with their song. Mermaids in particular are known for their legendary beauty and magical control of the waves. Treat them nicely and you will be blessed with safe passage across the sea, treat them poorly and your ship shall surely wreck.” Marco rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

 

“magical control of the waves, sweet!” Undyne was down for that.

 

“legendary beauty?” Ugly was wondering how much humans found him attractive. Bunny patted his shoulder, knowingly.

 

“Well, I suppose I do have a magic song, although I hope that if there are any fish monsters that they would not sink human ships.” Cordelia mused, stroking her hair.

 

Marco looked like he might actually jump for joy,

 

“Wait, you have a magical song? I’ll cut the cost in half if you’ll sing!”

 

“Marco! Seriously? You are the same cousin that won’t loan me a twenty without asking for interest!”

 

“Shh-Violet!”

 

“Oh, it is no problem! I love singing, can you guys do the backup?” Cordelia figured it would be fun.

 

“Well, alright.” Undyne preferred piano to singing, but a chance to hear her mom was always wonderful.

 

Undyne began to hum, followed by Rinan (who could only really hum at this stage), and finally by Ugly, whose voice was surprisingly deep and mesmerizing. The three harmonized,

 

“Hmmm hmmm hmmm hmmm.”

 

 

Cordelia began her magic song-it wasn’t words but an aria,

 

“Ohhh ooooo ohh oooo ohh ahhhhh ahhhh ahhhhhhaaa”

 

The magic in her voice helped echo her song across the docks, other beachgoers turned their heads- somehow the slightly dingy beach began to feel more magical-and then look magical as wisps of ocean water spiraled into the air.

 

Sans listened to the music, as Cordelia’s voice crooned, occasionally peaking high-

 

“oh oh ooohh”

 

-but mostly staying low and alluring everyone towards the docks.

 

Sans closed his eyes- he felt the pull of the ocean and took a step forward. Undyne- saw this and pushed him back. Cordelia noticed that the other monsters and humans were pulled closer and closer, so she finished a final soft note.

 

Undyne and Ugly clapped, and the group was snapped out of the trance. He looked around, most monsters seemed to be shaking their heads and cheering, and a couple nearby humans clapped for a bit before dazedly going back towards the beach.

 

“That was so-so-” David looked stunned.

 

“Wow thank you!” Marco smiled dopily.

 

 

*************************

Marco and David explained the general boat safety, rules, and tried to get every monster to relax, which was admittedly not a concern after Cordelia’s singing.

 

“We have safe equipment, and are proud to say we have never had an accident. Feel free to ask any questions.”

 

Even Sans, who had been panicking all morning, just held Grillby’s hand and helped him keep balance getting onto the gently rocking boat. The flame monster was not used to the rocking. Marco and David had an eye on him, and made sure he did not trip.

 

“You just need to get your sea legs there!”

 

Grillby was pretty sure fire elementals were not meant to have sea legs.

 

Alphys also had a bit of trouble getting onto the big white speedboat until she used her tail to balance a bit-and surprisingly, so did Papyrus, who usually excelled at physical things. The tall skeleton tripped a bit when coming on board, but David grabbed his hand and helped pull him from the dock.

 

“Ok, so let me go over this, we can do two at a time. Can everybody sit next to the person they want to go up with, I think there aren’t any huge weight disparities, so you all should be fine. We also need at least one group of three. Also if you have a camera and you want a picture, hand it to me” David finished.

 

Sans, handed Marco the camera so every group could have a picture. The couples paired off, and although Papyrus and Nile offered to have Apple with them, Doggo insisted she join them, probably to let the two lovebirds soar together.

 

Before starting the boat David and Marco helped everyone get a set of the straps that would help them attach to the chute, shaped rather like a swing with two loops attached to it and a belt. One leg went into each loop- and just slid up like pants. The seat was then underneath, and David or Marco then tightened a loop belt around each monster’s waist. Violet helped the monsters into the harnesses, and tucked the straps that would eventually hang them to the device out of the way. After a bit of confusion for Ugly’s straps (he had a single fish tail that he normally slid or hopped around on), they decided to put both straps on the same tail and continued.

 

“Now for those of you with tails, I am not sure, it may be a bit uncomfortable, but if you are able to sit on your tail it should be fine. We can let those groups go first so that you don’t have to wait around. Now, we are going to put the lifejackets on so that if something were to happen you could float.”

 

Doggo, Bunny, and Lesser Dog looked alright, but poor Red and Alphys, who had a pretty thick tails (Red has a puffy duck tail in the back) seemed the most uncomfortable.

 

Violet, Marco, and David helped everyone into some bright orange and squishy feeling lifejackets, and then Marco helped Violet into her seat and jacket.

 

“…Well…I suppose this would help you find my clothes at least…” Grillby laughed as he poked his life-jacket.

 

“oh asgore, grillbz, don’t you joke about that. although, i wonder if this would even help someone like me float?”

 

Again, Skeletons were not known for being good at floating, Sans usually stayed in the shallow end of Undyne’s pool, or relied on gravity magic to swim. Papyrus was a little taller, so he could get around most swimming pools fine but still could not really float well.

 

With everyone’s lifejackets on, Marco started the boat. The parasail- a beautiful chute with green, yellow, and red marking puffed full of air and was held directly behind the boat.

 

Cordelia and the monsterlings waved goodbye, and before he knew it Grillby was at sea- boat skipping across the waves. Grillby’s fire fell flat against his head but burned brightly, as the boat sped forward he was amazed the watch the ripples of water skid behind the boat. The wind was there, but he seemed to be handling it fine.

 

 

“Ok, so why don’t we start with the Violet and Red. Violet’s done it before, so she can show you it is easy- and this way we can get poor Red out of the seat.” David motioned for the two to stand up.

 

Violet gave Red a reassuring peck on the cheek.

 

David guided her and Red to the back of the boat. The flat section was easy to stand on, and David quickly strapped each seat to a bar connected to the parachute.

 

“Ready you two?” David asked.

 

“Ok, I’m ready to fly like a human!” Red was not a bad swimmer, but he hoped it would go without a hitch.

 

Red folded the tips of his wings onto the strap connecting him to the beautiful chute behind him. Violet calmly nodded yes. David took control, and let the rope connected to the chute extend. Red and Violet gently glided into the air, their feet gently lifting off the boat. Red seemed to be enjoying it-he grabbed Violet’s hand showed her how to flap properly- Violet pretended to fly with Red.

 

The two enjoyed soaring around majestically-after bit David started to pull them in.

 

“Ok-So Violet’s my family, so we are gonna dip her feet in the water- but I promise we won’t do that unless you ask me to, ok?”

 

Violet and Red had fun sticking their feet into the water and letting the ocean spray cool them off- It was a hot day for September and the ocean spray was welcome. Violet and Red were then pulled back into the boat, landing safely and smiling with glee.

 

“Well, I’d say human fling is alright, a bit of an unusual take off position, though!”

 

“Alright! We got the avian stamp of approval!” David hi-fived Red.

 

Next up-Alphys and Undyne were strapped in. Alphys looked a bit nervous, heights were not her favorite thing, and water was only starting to grow on her. She looked at the shore, four tiny dots, a yellow, green, white, and red next to a mother in law seemed to be watching. After a quick gulp she smiled and grabbed the straps.

 

“You guys want to get wet?”

 

“A-Absolutely! We are down for it!” Alphys shouted with bravado.

 

Undyne looked at Alphys, man she loved this dinosaur! Alphys closed her eyes for the first few seconds, but as she drifted into the sky with Undyne, she opened them and seemed to move from accepting her fate to genuinely enjoying the experience.

 

“U-undyne, I think you can see the mountain from here!”

 

Doggo, Lesser Dog, and Apple were next. There was room on the bar for a third seat, so they put Apple (the smallest) in the middle. The two dogs yelped during the initial rise, but the barking stopped once they were in the air.

 

As soon as they were back in the boat, Apple immediately started trying to post the experience on her Undernet account-taking a selfie with the dogs. Zostra was gonna be pretty jealous. #Oceanflight

 

Ugly and Bunny were a particularly cute couple today. Bunny tied back her ears and Ugly tried to straighten his dorsal fin-the two wanted a cute picture above all else, asking to not be dipped in the water. Of course once the two got in the sky, they were so caught up in the view that they forgot to look at the camera!

 

Next, Papyrus and Nile soared into the air. Papyrus, upon being lifted up, started to look a bit panicked and Sans could tell his bones were rattling. Sans remembered the skeleton had never been a fan of heights-even as a monsterling Papyrus had not enjoyed being lifted by Sans’ gravity magic. He wondered if that was why Papyrus’ magic always pulled down?  

 

Nile grabbed his hand- and it popped off. Nile was busy looking at the view so the skeleton had a second to stealthily re-connect and then pose dramatically with the other arm in a muscle man pose as Nile turned to look at him.

 

Haha-smooth Papyrus. The tall skeleton seemed happy to be back on the ground.

 

Grillby was very excited-it was finally their turn, and despite the wind his flame hair seemed to be dancing on his head. He could not believe he was doing this! As a precaution, Grillby double-checked his rain boots and coat-yup nice and snug. The elemental gave Sans’ hand a squeeze as the two were clicked into the chute.

 

Sans was doing his best to relax. He needed to, he had promised Grillby. The skeleton mustered a smile and caught the elemental’s face. His flame was flickering in a way that read nervous but happy, and he had that doofy jack-o-lantern smile again. Sans gave his own skeletal smile and before he could blink-the two were being pulled backwards into the air.

 

Grillby let out a triumphant “Whoo!” as the boat pulled away and became small in their eyes. The elemental clung to the cable, not daring to let go- he looked down at an endless ocean stretching into the horizon. It was beautiful, and there was Sans, smiling with him, looking at him of all things.

 

“…Sans…stop looking at me, look at the view!...It is incredible!...”

 

“heh, it sure is.”

 

Sans let out a breath and, leaned to give Grillby a very quick, but romantic skeletal kiss. Grillby’s whole head turned blue for a few seconds, and he had to very quickly keep his flame in check from rising higher.

 

Finally Sans took a second to look at the view-not only could you see the ocean, but Alphys was right, there was Mount Ebott in the distance. Wow, to think that only half a year ago the monsters had just been trapped there.

 

“hey, grillbabe, i _sea_ you flying. _sky_ don’t know- maybe, violet is right- you are an air elemental after all.”

 

“…Oh _chute_ …guess I am”

 

The pair giggled all the way down, smiling as they landed safely on the boat.

 

********************

 

After the pair landed, the boat skipped back to shore.

 

 

“Got a few nice pictures of you all, feel free to share it with out Facebook page or Twitter if you want, and tell all your friends about us!”

 

David handed the camera back to Sans. Alphys and Papyrus had warmed up to parasailing, but both seemed a bit seasick. They went to the edge of the boat, ready to climb off.

 

“Ok, we can get off now, but watch out, it’s slippery”

 

As David warned the group, Alphys moved her tail down to stabilize herself. Papyrus, not noticing, took a step forward- and proceeded to slip off of it and slide into the ocean.

 

“NYEH!”

 

_“PAPYRUS!”_

“oh crap is he OK?” Marco shouted.

 

Sans and Nile ran to the edge of the boat, and looked into the water-Paps had already sunk like a stone.

 

Sans quickly spoke up.

 

“he doesn’t have lungs, he’ll be fine. but without the lifejacket he is gonna sink and have to walk to shore.”

 

“No, that is no good! The water down there is kind of murky- the ocean floor gets a bit muddy and gross in this part of the dock. He could get stuck if he isn’t careful.” Marco looked very worried.

 

“It’s ok, I got this!” Undyne jumped over Nile and Sans and into the water without another word, diving after her friend.

 

Ugly also slipped to the side of the boat and flopped into the water.

 

“If he is stuck, even Undyne could use help,” Ugly lowered his head into the water, and made a face-he was really a freshwater fish monster.

 

As the fish monsters dove in, Marco and David got everyone else off the boat safely- not wanting another customer to slip into the water.

 

A few soul crunching minutes later, Ugly popped his head out of the water- and spit out a bit of it.

 

“Ugh, it is a bit murky down there, but we found him, Undyne’s using a spear to get him dislodged from some muddy sand. He seems ok.”

 

Sans was still worried, though. He stood leaning over the dock, waiting to see his brother. It should only be a minute to get him unstuck, what was taking so long? Sans peered over the edge of the dock, he thought he saw someone-

 

Suddenly Ugly and Undyne popped up, with Papyrus!

 

The shock caused the leaning Sans to slip himself. Grillby- being to Sans immediate left grabbed the skeleton- but Bunny, who had been further away, sprang forward to also grab the skeleton. Together, the two caused the skeleton to slip further.

 

In an instant all three were falling forward into the water-Sans panicked- and Grillby, Bunny and the small skeleton short cutted away in a burst of nasty crackling Gaster magic.

 

***************************************

 

With a thud, the three found themselves in Snowdin: Sans and Bunny in bathing Suits, and Grillby in a raincoat and boots. Naturally it was snowing.

 

“oh crap, sorry, guess I panicked.”

 

“…no, I would prefer Snowdin to slipping into the ocean…”

 

“I am just glad we are ok!” Bunny chimed in.

 

It was a bit surreal being back in Snowdin. While other areas of the Underground still had monsters, the entire town had moved up to the surface months ago. The houses were abandoned; lights were off, long ago having had the power cut. The gyftmas tree was oddly bare- covered in ice and snow. Already, a tree branch had fallen into Grillby’s old restaurant, breaking a bit of window and causing pine needles and snow to fall in.

 

With few animals underground, the eerie echoes of Sans’ static teleport was the only sound to be heard.

 

A snowflake came down and hit Bunny’s nose. Since it was September, she still had her summer coat of fur, so in her bathing suit it was a bit chilly.

 

“Sansy, do you have it in you to bring us back?”

 

“…If you think you can handle it?...” Grillby wanted to leave, too. Seeing his old restaurant like this-ooph.

 

“oh, yeah of course. Back to the beach!”

 

Sans grabbed both of them at the elbow and short cutted again- but instead of the beach, the skeleton found himself in Waterfall, the crackling teleport even louder. They were by an old house that Sans recognized.

 

"i'm still recovering, so this may take a few jumps guys."

 

Sans shrugged, and short cutted again, this time the static noise got louder.

 

Next he was in Hotland, the warm heat a nice change. A few fire monsters were about, and a bit surprised to see the three appear out of nowhere. Grillby waved at a few and Sans went for the next destination.

 

The trio found themselves in the true lab. Sans shuddered. Bunny found herself face to face with a most unusual monster.

 

A giant head shaped monster with a cracked smile poked its head out of the floor and stared at Bunny.

 

* **The old Royal scientist’s assistant is a smart guy.**

*** He tried to build a machine that could fix both time and his soul.**

*** But after he realized it was making things worse, he had to stop.**

*** He had to stop**

“don’t worry, friend, i did not come here to work on the machine again, i’ll be gone.” Sans grabbed Bunny and Grillby and used another shortcut. The rabbit monster and flame monster caught each other's gaze-before being lurched to the next destination.

 

The group was at the end of the bridge closest to the Labs.

 

Ok, they had made it to the area over the core- the hot pulsing sphere of light and magma stood under a bridge between two cliff faces. Sans hated this place.

 

“are you two doing ok? sorry, it's taking so long.”

 

“don’t worry, hun, i’m used to feeling dizzy.”

 

“…I’ll be fine Sans, and if you can’t do it, we will just walk the rest of the way…it is not far to the exit...”

 

Sans nodded, and short-cutted again…and ended up not in the capitol, but three feet to the right-on the bridge, He short cutted again, this time closer to the bridge’s center.

 

“…are you getting really tired Sans…?”

 

“huh, this isn’t right.”

 

The skeleton let go of Grillby and Bunny and tried shortcutting one more time-now he was directly over the core.

 

Again- he felt himself pulled to the floor of the bridge, directly over it-his skeletal face against the metal floor.

He stood up, and teleported one more time.

 

His face slammed into the metal ground, oh that hurt.He could feel it-the core under him. What remained of Gaster- flung into and through it. He was so close to his old friend, but he had to get away.

 

He saw the giant grey head appear again, this time the monster's eyes were wide.

 

* **STOP, Stop, He had to STOP.**

“…Sans!...” Grillby and Buny ran forward and picked him up.

 

“ok, guys i-i think we need to walk.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully this extra long chapter is alright :D Poor Sans needs his own magic back.


	40. The last day of summer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We wrap up summer fun at the beach as the monsters find themselves competing in a sand castle contest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I realize I have been taking way too long with the updates. I tried to write a nice long one to make up for it- I am struggling a bit with work right now- teaching and researching-and competing with another lab that is working on the same project before they scoop me! 
> 
> But I really want to say thank you to everyone who has been reading. Your encouragement has helped me write more and given me a chance me improve as a writer. I honestly love writing-this is such a nice thing to do besides science. 
> 
> Some fun notes-I actually calculated what Sans would weight based on the height I gave him earlier and what the average weight of bones for a man is. Grillby's weight was harder, considering I found a density for the lava I wanted his core to be- but also on deciding how much of his core should be lava, and what percentage of a grown man that should be. 
> 
> The next chapter should be fun. Sans' birthday is coming up, and his big conference. We also might be seeing Afi and Sobek again soon.

Sans phone buzzed as it got service in the Capitol, Papyrus had called fourteen times, and Alphys once. Bunny’s phone buzzed, Ugly had called twice. Grillby looked at his phone, Papyrus had called ten times.

 

“Ooh, Caspy’s calling again, let me pick up.”

 

“ok, i’m worried about paps, so i’ll call him when your done. just don’t tell him anything that would overly wor-.”

 

Bunny picked up the phone,

 

“So Sansy’s magic accidently teleported us to Snowden, and so he tried to take us home in small bursts. Then some weird grey worm head ghost monster than knew Sans started to talk to me being all creepy, but Sans got us to the core- but then his magic just looked like it was stalling, but actually it tried to send him into the core itself! He kept smashing his face in over and ov-”

 

“bunny!”

 

“Yeah, yeah, we are ok, we just decided to walk to the entrance. Sure, see you in a bit.”

 

“bunny! paps is gonna go crazy once ugly tells him.”

 

“Oh, Caspy has the sense not worry poor Paps.”

 

Sans phone rang, and the small skeleton sighed.

 

***

 

Grillby and Bunny could both hear Papyrus’ voice through Sans phone.

 

“SANS! I HEARD YOU KEPT **OUCH** SHORT CUTTING WITH THEM!”

 

“well, we were all worried about you, so we wanted to get back quickly.”

 

“AND THEN G-s-ERS **OUCH** F****** MAGIC TRIED TO KILL YOU?”

 

“well, yeah, it did. look, i’m real sorry for scaring you, but we will be back soon enough, and can keep having some fun, it’s only noon. You need to calm down, where did you learn that word?”

 

“AHEM* I AM SORRY SANS, g-StE—‘S SACRUM F****** AN ELBOW MAGIC TRIED TO SEND MY ONLY FAMILY INTO THE BONEF****** CORE!”

 

Bunny’s ears shot down and Grillby’s flames rose high. Skeleton curses were pretty creative.

 

“well, we are all ok. bro, are you gonna be ok, do you want me to come back to the beach? you, uh seem kind of upset with me.”

 

“ **OOPH** SANS! I AM SORRY FOR CURSING, I AM JUST WORRIED SICK ABOUT YOU! ARE YOU SAFE?”

 

“yeah, i already said we are ok. no bones about it, we are fine! and i promise not to try teleporting again.”

 

Sans heard Papyrus let out a sigh of relief. It had been a stressful couple of weeks.

 

“so, uh, why are occasionally emitting a sound of pain. are you that distressed? are you gonna come pick us up?”

 

Papyrus sighed a second time, a bit more somberly.

 

“NO. MY **OUCH** FOOT IS STILL AT THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN…SO ALPHYS IS GONNA BE BY IN A BIT.”

 

“oh woah paps, that is awful, is it ok?”

 

“SOME OCEAN CREATURE IS **AH!** CURRENTLY CLAWING AT IT. SO IT HURTS.”

 

“ok, well we should bandage it up once you get it back.”

 

 

“WELL, THAT IS PROBABLY A GOO-AHAHAHAHAHHA OH ASGORE, UNDYNE FOUND IT, AND SHE IS TICKLING IT!”

 

“oh that is great!”

 

“IT IS AHAHA* AWFUL!”

 

“oh, well try not to trip yourself up over it and just put your best foot forward.”

 

“HAHAHAHA* SANS THAT’S NOT FUNNY!”

 

“see you in a bit.”

 

Sans hung up the cell phone.

 

Bunny turned to Sans,

 

“Sacrum F****** an elbow? What kind of a skeleton curse is that”

 

“i’m pretty sure nile taught him that. she knows a surprising amount of curses-well i mean in addition to like spell curses. while we are heading up, let me tell you about how she accidently cursed the lasagna into a moving cheese and sauce creature bent on vengeance.”

 

The three headed to the surface.

 

***

The nice thing about the Underground was that it was small, and that the Core was close to the Capitol and the entrance to the Surface.

 

Bunny, Grillby, and Sans were got a few funny looks as they walked through the Capitol in their bathing suits, but thankfully, most of the monsters left in the capitol left them alone, and they reached the surface entrance giggling about how Sans, Nile, and Papyrus had had to quickly battle the sentient lasagna.

 

“honestly, it was pretty delicious, helped work up an appetite. maybe we’ll ask her to do it again for gyftmas.”

 

Grillby wondered if he could convince Sans to come to his family’s for Gyftmas instead.

 

It wasn’t long before Alphys was at the entrance in the dino/fishmom-mobile.

 

“C-come on in everyone!” Alphys face looked red, and Sans noticed her claws looked like she had been biting them.

 

Bunny hopped in front while Sans and Grillby took backseat.

 

“S-so I got a notification that someone entered the l-lab. C-Caspian mentioned that you had a run in with Dr. Worm?”

 

“uh, yeah, he showed up.”

 

“w-what exactly happened?”

 

“maybe i need to stop shortcutting.”

 

“j-just with g-st--’s magic, you mean?”

 

“i hope so-i mean do you think that shortcutting magic just goes haywire after a while? how old was gaster?””

 

“oh-um…I have no idea…probably pretty old…like how long do ghasts live two-hundred years? I never asked. Asgore would know, right?”

 

Asgore would probably be the monster to ask. Alphys kept her eyes on the road, but kept talking,

 

“A-and about it going haywire, I do not think so- but the only three monsters I personally know to be born with it are you, G—ter, and Whiskers. I think Worm learned. Whiskers-his was…yellow magic I think, and Gas---‘s magic did not used to be black and crackly did it?”

 

“no-it should be blue, like mine.”

 

“Well, maybe once you get yours back it would be fine as long as it does not turn static like?”

 

“yeah, here’s to hoping.”

 

Alphys kept driving, and the group was already pretty close to the beach.

 

“Oh- hold on guys, we need to stop at this supermarket, the gang asked me to get some things.”

 

***

Alphys came back with a big grocery bag, filled with some bottled drinks, and the group returned to the beach, into a group of concerned monster friends.

 

Sans was immediately hugged by a large bony skele-brother.

 

“SANS! YOU ARE NOT MELTED INTO THE CORE!” Papyrus squeezed Sans, popping a few vertebrae.

 

“nope, and you, uh, are back from ocean exploration?”

 

“UGH, IT WAS SO MURKY I COULD NOT EVEN SEE ANYTHING. A BUNCH OF TINY FISH SWAM THROUGH MY RIBS! IT WAS AWFUL. ONE FISH EVEN BIT ME!”

 

Undyne guiltily turned her head.

 

“oh that’s awful, let me see.”

 

Papyrus blushed,

 

“NYEH HEH, OH, UH IT BIT MY PELVIS, SO I THINK NOT.”

 

Sans watched Undyne make a retching motion and tried to suppress a snicker.

 

“uh, how is your foot?”

 

“FOOT IS EXCEPTIONAL AS ALWAYS.”

 

Papyrus lifted his foot into the air- a small bandage covered his big toe.

 

“OH, AND THIS IS A PHOTO OF WHAT WAS BIT-ER PINCHING ME. IT’S A GRUMPY CRAB, SO I NAMED HIM HENRY.”

 

Papyrus pulled out the camera to show a smiling Papyrus and Nile holding a red rock crab. The next photo was Nile cradling it, and the following showed Papyrus and Nile tearfully releasing the crab onto the beach, holding hands. The next photo showed Undyne with a suspicious crab leg dangling out of her mouth.

 

“UNDYNE!”

 

“Do you know how much of an appetite you get grabbing a thirty pound skeleton and swimming them up an ocean!”

 

“dang, thirty pounds, bro?”

 

Papyrus smiled proudly,

 

“YES, WITH ALL THE EXERCISE, I BULKED UP A BIT.”

 

 _“YOU ARE SO STRONG!”_ Nile was probably just as strong as Papyrus, but the compliment made him smile, showing all his bony teeth. Nile giggled as Papyrus showed off by lifting her up with a twirl.

 

“SANS IF YOU EXERCISED MORE YOU COULD BULK UP, TOO.”

 

“oh, well, you know me, tens pounds of pure, um, collagen and carbonated hydroxylapatite.”

 

“…You only weigh ten pounds?…”

 

“uh, hey, i’m all bones, what do you expect?”

 

Sans tried to use some crackly black Gaster magic to lift Grillby up to twirl him around, too- he managed to get the elemental’s feet a foot off the ground. Grillby tried helping by jumping, and he went up a second foot, only to wobble downwards again.

 

“MORE LIKE TEN POUNDS OF SPONGE BONE.”

 

Grillby looked embarrassed,

 

“…oh no! I am so sorry Sans…I am more basalt than andesite, so my core is a bit dense…ugh but it is no excuse…last time I weighed in, it was had sixty pounds of lava… I need to work out more, it should be fifty…”

 

The elemental poked his mostly non-existent flaming stomach.

 

“grillby, relax, you are crazy hot.”

 

“NO GRILLBY DON’T FEEL DOWN! I AM JUST RIBBING SANS!”

 

Grillby still turned a blue-ish color. That would not do.

 

Sans pulled out his last bottle of ketchup, downing it in a gulp. He could feel his gravity magic coming back to him all week, albeit slowly. Now was the time for it to work. He could do this.

 

Concentrating with all his magic, he managed to lift a very happy elemental up into the air, and quickly twirl him around.

 

“…Sans! Your magic!…”

 

Sans wanted to twirl himself into the air. Finally! Although the black static crackle surrounding Grillby meant it was still Gaster’s magic, it was an improvement.

 

Papyrus turned to Nile, their eye socet’s both glowing in unison. Papyrus excitedly turned to his brother.

 

“SANS! IF YOUR GRAVITY MAGIC IS BACK THEN YOU HAVE TO HELP US! ALPHYS, DID YOU GET THE KETHCUP?”

 

“Y-yup. Although-I do-don’t see why I should help the other team.”

 

“I WILL PAY YOU BACK FOR THE KETCHUP! SANS, I NEED YOU TO DRINK ALL THE KETCHUP ALPHYS BOUGHT AT THE STORE.”

 

“sure, but wh-”

 

“WE NEED YOU TO BE FULL OF ENERGY TO HELP US WITH THE SANDCASTLE CONTEST.”

 

“uh. what?”

 

“NILE WANTS TO WIN THE CONTEST. SAND IS HER THING. BUT LESSER DOG IS ON HIS OWN TEAM, AND MY FOOT IS GIVING ME TROUBLE-WE NEED ALL THE HELP WE CAN GET. PLEASE JOIN OUR TEAM.”

 

Nile looked at Sans and Grillby.

 

Papyrus’ foot was re-attached, but considering the large bandage on it, and the fact that his face was still covered in a creepy mask of bandages he was probably not at 100%.

 

“why the ketchup?”

 

“IF YOUR GRAVITY MAGIC WORKS IT WOULD BE GREAT FOR YOU TO HELP BUILD THE STRUCTURES WITH IT!”

 

“wait, bro, are you ok with me using magic?”

 

“AS LONG AS IT IS NOT GA—ER TELEPORT MAGIC. LET’S USE IT UP ON SAND CASTLES.”

 

_“SANS! WITH YOUR HELP WE HAVE THIS IN THE BAG!”_

 

“well, ok, but only if grillby wants to do it.”

 

Papyrus looked pointedly at the elemental,

 

“GRILLBY PLEASE JOIN US?”

 

_“GRILLBY! I CAN BAKE YOU GUYS COOKIES LATER!”_

Grillby was not sure if he really was up for the gamble of Nile’s cooking, but nodded in agreement,

 

“…Oooh, uh…ok....Just don’t hit me with the sand…”

 

****

 

Sans looked at the beach. A crowd of humans and monsters had lined up around a lifeguard with a megaphone. Groups were signing up and being given plots on the beach.

 

Undyne, Alphys, Ugly, Cordelia, and the four monsterlings were in a huddle. Red, Violet, LD, and Doggo were clumped together. This left Nile, Papyrus, Sans, Grillby, Apple, and Curlz together.

 

One of the lifeguard assistants came up to the monsters.

 

“OK, monster-dudes, you are welcome to compete, but most of the other groups have shovels, will you be, ok?”

 

Nile lifted a patch of sand into the air with her magic, Undyne magically pulled out a spear, and Lesser Dog gave a determined nod.

 

“Ok, I think that should work. What are your team names?”

 

“Uh, what sort of names do the other teams have?”

 

“Oh it can be anything serious or funny. Over there is ‘Jesse and the heartbreakers,’ ‘The Italian Men’s Club,’ ‘The Shovel Knights,’ ‘Sand Warriors,’ and ‘The Giant Crabs.’ And uh, well there is another team that called themselves ‘The Sand Skeletons.’”

 

Sans, Apple, and Papyrus looked at the group of bearded humans in bandanas who were not particularly skeleton like-although they did have cool jackets with skeletons on their backs.

 

 _“WELL I CAN’T BLAME THEM, SKELETONS ARE ADORABLE.”_ Nile smiled at Papyrus.

 

“YOU GUYS ARE ADORABLE!” Papyrus shouted at the grisly biker men. One turned to him and shouted back a certain phrase.

 

“OK, MAYBE NOT, UM, *SUPER ADORABLE. BUT GOOD TASTE IN NAMES.”

 

“ok, so instead of the sand skeletons how about ‘team sans skeleton’”

 

“…Oh hahah…”

 

“SANS YOUR JOKES ARE BAD AND YOU SHOULD FEEL BAD.”

 

“uh, ok, then team ‘hot stuff.’”

 

“…no…five of you are primarily bones…and not fire…”

 

“uh, how about-”

 

_“OOH, HOW ABOUT ‘SKELEMENTAL’.”_

Papyrus’ eyes lit up,

 

“WOW, NILE, YOU ARE AMAZING, WHAT A PERFECT NAME.”

 

Sans, was admittedly a bit disappointed he had not thought of that name, but conceded it was excellent.

 

“We are goings to be The Mad Dogs!” Doggo announced while Red, Violet, Lesser Dog did their best howl.

 

“Well, then let’s be team Dino-err wait.”

 

Undyne looked pretty embarrassed that she had forgotten this,

 

“what type of dinosaurs are you again?”

 

“It’s ok, it is hard to remember.” Alphys smiled at Undyne.

 

“W-well I take after my father who is like an Udanoceratops Monster, and Nariko takes after mom who is a Carnotaurus monster. B-but most of this team is fish-”

 

“Oh, come on Alphys, let me name something after you! Team Udanoceratops!”

 

“Ok, then.“ The lifeguard tried their best to spell Udanoceratops on the name sheet.

 

“We are going to get started in a few minutes, so get ready!”

 

Sans, Grillby, Nile, Papyrus, and Apple got to their spot. Curlz defected to Team Udanoceratops so she could hang out with the monsterlings a bit more.

 

The monster teams took their positions, and the lifeguard got onto his chair,

 

“Alright, time for the contest to officially start. Good luck! You have until five PM to finish, at which point there will be free ice cream, and special awards for the top three teams. Just remember the structures have to be 100% Sand, beach items, and water!”

 

 

*****

Grillby was staring at the puddle of wet sand that Papyrus and Apple had created with a few borrowed buckets and salt water. Ugh, why did sand have to be so gross. Nile immediately started outlining the area, with a bone lent from Papyrus, drawing little lines in it for turrets and bridges.

 

“…ok…sandcastles… my dad and brother like to play with sand…but it makes my hands all lava-ey so I typically dislike it…also the sand seems damp…so yeah damp sand…pretty unpleasant…but I mean…it could be fun…could you show me how to make one Sans?… you must be good at making them!...”

 

Grillby looked at Sans, his flames dancing in the sun. Sans’ soul melted a bit. Nile was going to need a few minutes to plan this, so why not?

 

“uh, sure, i mean yeah, I’m um great at making them. it’s uh, just like building a snowman, which i suppose you also would not have done. so uh, you just push the sand together like this and try to make something cool, like a castle.”

 

Sans pushed the damp-ish sand together to form a lump, dry sand running through his fingers. He formed a sad pile that looked rather like his snowman in the Underground. He then started to grab some shells to write his name with.

 

Grillby copied the motion, making his own little sand lump, and sticking a little shell on it. Half the Sand turned to glass as he touched it, creating a weird bubbly shell on top of his creation. Grillby then chaped his to look like a turtle instead.

 

“oh grillbz, that is so cool!”

 

“…Uh….well it is cool…if unexpected…although it is not as great as yours Sans…”

 

“HA, NOT AS GREAT AS ME! WATCH THIS SKILL. IT WILL SURELY OUTSHADOW THE PILE OF SAND SANS WILL WRITE IN KETCHUP ON”

 

Papyrus splashed a bucket of water onto a new area of beach, pushed a bunch of it up, and immediately started to try to use his gravity magic to pack together the sand of what looked like it might end up being a giant sand Papyrus.

 

Sans had used to really enjoy building snowmen with Papyrus, towards the end of the Chara’s torment, he had sort of lost interest-But now on the surface, in front of Grillby his brother would not outdo him! Sans dropped the seashells and instead downed an entire bottle of ketchup, his skeletal hands crackled with Gaster’s magic. Sans did not catch it, but Papyrus smiled mischievously.

 

“well grillbz, i was just getting warmed up. let me just, uh, make it a little taller.”

 

Sans formed a more monster-shaped structure, lifting the wet sand up with magic, and then very carefully used one hand to pull the right half the structure in, and the other hand to pull the left half of the structure in.

 

Papyrus walked around his own structure and compacted it as he walked in a circle.

 

“…wait…I never noticed this before…Papyrus, you push the sand…and Sans you always…pull…in some direction.”

 

“YES, UNFORTUNATELY I CAN’T DO THE DRAGGING THING. SANS TRIED TO TEACH ME, BUT WE JUST HAVE DIFFERENT MAGIC.”

 

“paps can compact things in a single direction with a good control of his force. i have more trouble controlling the force, since i pull it in, so i do both sides at once to balance it out. the way paps can control his magic so carefully is pretty cool.”

 

“NYEH, HEH, HEH. WELL, I WILL ADMIT, MY MAGIC IS BETTER FOR SANDCASTLE-MAKING. OF COURSE I WILL MAKE THE BEST SAND SCU-”

 

“of course, my warm up sand _skull_ pture is going to be of the handsome fire elemental-grillby. and it is going to be life-size, and capture grillby’s natural emanating beauty.”

 

“…my what?…”

 

“IT IS ON BROTHER! BROTHER CONTEST TIME!”

 

“alright bro. brother contest time! you are going down paps!”

 

 _“OK, but limit it to fifteen minutes, we need to start working on the actual structure after that!”_ Apple smiled at the two.

 

“NYEH HEH HEH, I CAN DO IT IN TEN!”

 

Grillby, Apple, and Nile watched in amazement as Sans and Papyrus both grabbed a bucket and ran into the ocean to fill it with water, looking at each other with glowing eyes. Grillby had never seen Sans run that fast before. Normally, the smaller skeleton would not compete with his brother, instead preferring to put in the minimal amount of effort required to let Papyrus feel like he’d won.

 

But Sans was really going for it. His magic was still a bit unstable, he would shakily knock some sand down every once in a while, and after about every twenty pulls, Grillby noticed he would take a ketchup swig-but that skeleton was trying. The sand sculpture was starting to take shape, Grillby recognizing what looked like a cartoonish version of his face. Sans pulled some sand upwards with the gravity magic, creating a pretty good flame-hair. The pose was Grillby rather dramatically holding his arms back, flame hair blowing in the wind. One of the flame’s fell off, but Sans added more water-his magic now strong enough that he could grab a sphere of water and splashing it on. A jealous Papyrus ran back to the ocean.

 

Papyrus, having formed a large and impressive sculpture was using his fingers to outline the shapes-of not himself- but Nile, sitting on the beach. The outlined bandage effect was actually pretty cool, Papyrus carefully tracing the outlines into the sand.

 

Fifteen minutes gone, and both structures looked really nice. Papyrus and Sans were panting a bit, but both looked happy.

 

“ok, who won?”

 

“YES, PLEASE VOTE!”

 

 _“OOh, PY! THAT IS SO SWEET! YOU EVEN GOT THE BANDAGES PATTERN PERFECTLY. YOU’VE WON IN MY HEART.”_ Nile gave Papyrus a big hug.

“…well…i think sans did really well, the hair looked really tricky…” Grillby also gave Sans a hug, leaning on him from behind.

 

Grillby and Nile were clearly biased. Eye sockets and flaming areas where eyes should be turned to poor Apple.

 

_“Uh, uhm, well both are really great…it is so hard to pick”_

Sans put a little magic into making some of the sand in sand-Grillby’s hair to wiggle. Papyrus, seeing this tried to get sand-Nile’s arm to wave down. The arm fell off.

 

“NOOO!” Papyrus fell to his knees and raised a fist to the sky.

 

_“Well I guess it has to go to Sans!”_

“woohoo!” Sans hugged a blushing Grillby, who pulled Sans around in a swirl.

 

_“AWW, IT IS OK PY! NOW FOR THE REAL SAND CASTLE MAKING!”_

 

***

 

_“Ok, I am not the best at sandcastle-making, the sand just runs right through me.”_

Apple, who did not possess any sort of gravitational magic had trouble holding the sand with her bony fingers.

 

“ _Just expect me to mostly be the bucket runner.”_

_“IF THAT IS WHAT YOU WANT TO DO AT FIRST, BUT YOU ARE SO ARTISTIC! YOU CAN HELP ME TRACE WINDOWS!”_

“…hmm…I don’t know what I can help with…”Grillby had managed to form a second sandcastle, this time he had not melted most of it, but it was still looking like a lopsided lump.

 

Nile turned smiling to the flame monster,

 

_“ACTUALLY, GRILLBY, PERHAPS YOU COULD GRAB BEACH GLASS OR SEASHELLS? MAYBE YOU COULD FIND SOME FOR THE WINDOWS AND CONCENTRATE ON GENTLY STICKING THEM INTO THE SAND? THE LIFEGUARD SAID IT WAS OK TO ADD DECORATIONS. JUST THINK OF IT LIKE DECORATING A CAKE.”_

“…oh…sure thing…beach glass…huh..” Grillby tried superheating some more sand, and formed a little drop of glass.

 

“ALTHOUGH WE CAN ONLY USE GLASS THAT YOU FIND ON YOUR OWN, NOW GLASS YOU MAKE TO KEEP TO THE HUMAN RULES.”

“…Sounds like a good plan…I like decorating cakes…”

 

_“SANS, I AM GOING TO ASK YOU TO LIFT THE SAND OUT OF THE GROUND IN BULK, AND PY, CAN YOU COMPRESS IT IN AND GET IT SMOOTH?”_

“sure thing.”

 

“ABSOLUTELY!”

 

_“OK, THEN I AM GOING TO DO THE FINE DETAILS, HOW DOES A BEAUX-ARTS STYLE CASTLE WITH A CONNECTING BRIDGE OVER TWO ISLANDS SOUND?”_

The monsters looked a bit puzzled.

 

_“IT IS A VERY ORNATE SYMMETRICAL PARISIAN STYLE, WITH LOTS OF DECORATIVE ADDITIONS LIKE DECORATIVE FLOWERS OR STATUES. I THINK IF WE JUST DO A PLAIN CASTLE, WE MIGHT NOT HAVE A GOOD SHOT OF WINNING, AND LOOKING AT THE OTHER TEAMS. WE NEED A WOW FACTOR BESIDES JUST SIZE.”_

_“Ooh, It sounds lovely Nile! We just need to get going, we are already behind!”_

Looking around, Lesser Dog had already created an enormous giant dog head, and the other members of the team were working on smaller dogs. A group of people was watching them, and Lesser Dog was taking pictures with random beach-goers.

 

A group of teenage humans had a giant whale, the ‘Italian Men’s Club’ already had what looked like a giant sphere, and a group of ladies had an enormous mound, probably also a castle. The biker guys had made what was turning into a fleet of motorcycles and the group next to them had made a giant crab. Oddly enough Undyne and company seemed to be building three structures, but it was hard to tell what they were.

 

“OK, LET’S GO! SANS START LIFTING UP THE BASE PATTERN!”

 

Papyrus splashed another bucket of water and Sans concentrated on lifting up the heavy wet sand.

 

After what felt like a minute, a large pillar of sand started to rise out of the ground. Sans strained for a bit, stopping to take glugs of ketchup as the black crackling glow surrounded the pillar, raising it slowly as little granule swept off of it. As Sans was lifting, a few blue splotches of glowing light poked through the crackling black magic, Sans’ own blue magic was starting to come back!

 

_“OK SANS, CAN YOU TRY TO MAKE A BRIDGE BETWEEN THIS HALF AND THIS HALF? AND THEN DIDIVE THIS HALF INTO QUARTERS?”_

 

Sans concentrated and split the sand tower in half, and then in half again. Afterwards, he connected a bridge. Apple ran to get a bucket of water, adding it to the bridge slowly. As Sans worked, the blue patches grew larger and larger.

 

_“OK, NOW PY, CAN YOU PACK IT IN? AS PY PACKS IT IN SANS, COULD YOU START LIFING UP TURRETS, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, AND HERE? AND PAPYRUS, LET’S TRY AND MAKE THIS HALF LOOK LIKE IT IS ELEVATEDON A HILL, SO LEAVE THE BOTTOM SECTION CURVED OUT!”_

As the sand raised, Papyrus started to pack it in, his blue magic splashing into the Gaster black, and at times mixing with the small patches of Sans’ blue magic. The effect of multiple bits of magic combining was pretty cool- the magic swirled together like oil in water. More and more of the castle switched from black to blue, but the crackling effect seemed to stay. Sans concentrated in bringing the general shape together with each turret he added, making what he could pillar like, and trying to add some rough out-lining. Papyrus packed each areas in slowly, making sure the structure was as stable as possible.

 

Sans was starting to wear out.

 

“ _OK SANS, ONE MORE TURRET, RIGHT HERE!”_

 

With the final turret, something bizarre happened-a patch of red gravity magic appeared. Sans turned to papyrus, who looked just as confused.

 

Sans gasped as the turret in that patch burst into flames. Papyrus quickly packed it in- blue and red mixing for a purple effect. Sans quickly let it go, and with the final turret in place, so did Papyrus. The turret was made entirely of glass. Nile carefully plucked it off before its weight could collapse the other pieces.

 

“woah!”

 

“SANS! DID GRILLBY ALSO DONATE MAGIC TO YOU?”

 

“...OH SANS! I did…wow…is that what our magic is like together! ...Sans that is so neat!…”

 

“wow, grillby, your magic is super cool. and it’s a good sign that i’m running out of gaster’s magic! do you want me to get that turret again nile?”

 

_“NO THAT IS OK, YOU TWO DID A TON. I BET YOU ARE EXHAUSTED AFTER THAT, WHY DON’T YOU TAKE A BREAK?”_

Nile carefully drew up a small line of sand, her eye glowing green and carefully emitted a feint golden-brown glow around the sand. The sand , glowing green and brown was poured into place, creating a dainty turret, with an eave on top.

 

 

 

Next, Nile moved her fingers carefully, and like an artist with a paintbrush, she drew on the finer details with wet dribbly sand, adding pillars, windows, domes, and tiny statues to arches.

 

_“OK, GRILLBY AND APPLE, DECORATION TIME!”_

 

At this point an exhausted Sans and Papyrus moved to the side. They rested for half an hour, having a nice nap in the sun. The nap was cut short, as a shadow formed over them from a small crowd had formed around the group, watching Nile, the master sculptor add facet after facet of glowing green or brown sand.

 

As Lesser Dog and his group had finished their structure, more and more of his crowd came to see the amazing glowing Sandcastle. Grillby and Apple turned to see the huge group had formed around them, to the point were Sans and Papyrus who were completely cut off.

 

Nile had noticed too, and while she had not minded at first, the attention seemed to be getting at her nerves.

 

“Wow, You go grandma!”

 

“Ooh, I don’t know that one line looks crooked to me!”

 

Crooked?

 

Nile’s arm started to shake, and one of the turrets fell. The crowd gasped. Someone booed. Sans, well rested, re-lifted the sand, with thankfully blue magic an re-attached it. Nile let out a sigh and thanked him and the crowd cheered again.

 

Papyrus looked at Nile, her eyes were glowing green, she had never had an opportunity to use magic this much before, and now a whole beach was watching. Grillby and Apple were doing their best to help add miscellaneous seashell decorations and get the crowd to back up, but to no avail.

 

 

“HEY SANS, WANT TO SEE WHO CAN SUMMON THE MOST BONES? BROTHER COMPETITION PART TWO?”

 

“huh? Is your magic ok?”

 

“BECAUSE WE ARE NOT REALLY HELPING WITH THE CASTLE ANYMORE, AND IT WOULD BE SUPER COOL, MAGIC THAT MIGHT EXCITE PEOPLE AND GET THEM TO LOOK THIS WAY.”

 

“bone attacks are boring, bro, who would want to see-”

 

Sans looked at Nile, who was rattling like crazy, her finger stuck in a single spot.

 

Sans shouted,

 

“hey bro, I’ve got a bone to pick with you!” Sans promptly summoned a good twenty tiny bones with a mixture of crackling black, blue-white, and fiery magic. The Sizzling red bones and crackling black ones made a noise, causing some of the crowd to turn.

 

“HUH, BROTHER, I CAN SURELY OUTDO THAT!”

 

Papyrus summoned his own twenty, and arranged them in a tower.

 

More of the crowd turned their heads, and watched as Papyrus and Sans tried to outdo each other, Sans summoning a trio of Gaster Blasters, one with black eyes, one with white and one on fire. Papyrus summoning his big lumbering orange eyed one, and surrounded it in dancing white bones before adding it to a tower.

 

Finally, all the humans were looking at their antics. Nile smiled, and took a deep breath, continuing to trace.

 

***

Around 4:30, the race was coming to an end, with Sans and Papyrus still going at it, each had formed their own sort of bone-jenga tower, with little tiny Gaster blasters hovering around it. Both looked like they were ready to pass out.

 

It was worth it though-Apple, Nile, and Grillby had transformed the sand into a magical castle, with beautiful seashell decorations, tiny bridges, and little statues. The brothers lagging magic, inspired Apple to help with the distraction.

 

_“So you are just ring to build the biggest tower?”_

“YES, AND THE WINNER IS THE BEST SKELETON FOR THE DAY! SANS AND I OF COURSE USED TO DO THIS SORT OF COMPETITION ALL THE TIME SO DO NOT FEEL EMBARASSED IF YOU-”

 

Apple summoned twenty bones, and caught up immediately. The crowd of humans gasped! To everyone’s surprise her bones were enormous-the size of herself.

 

Sans had always assumed your bones were based on the bones that made you up, but he supposed he had only ever looked at Gaster and Paps’.

 

_“I have never understood why bone attacks are useful, they are so unwieldy.”_

“uh, yours are enormous, no wonder.”

 

_“You two have never met a lady skeleton before have you? Not always, there are always exceptions, but we tend to summon this variety.”_

“THAT IS SO COOL!”

 

Apple added a few more bones, till hers was the tallest tower.

 

_“Oh I am rather average, you should see little Curlz. CURLZ! COME HERE!”_

The tiny skeleton ran over.

 

_“Curlz, can you summon a bone? The tallest bone tower wins being best skeleton for the day!”_

“HEY! Don’t help the enemy team!” Undyne shouted.

 

_“Don’t worry Undyne, this is just for fun!”_

Curlz smiled and summoned a bone and stood it on its end, slightly clearing Sans’, Apple’s, and Papyrus’ tower.

 

Sans and Papyrus’ jaw’s fell off. If Undyne’s jaw could come off it would have. The humans went wild with a cheer.

 

 _“i can only do one though!”_ Curlz giggled and then snapped her bone away.

“ok kid, i think you win best skeleton of the day.”

 

Sans got rid of his tower of tiny bones, and did his best to summon a skull shaped bone hat. Curlz was crowned the victor. Papyrus and Apple sadly conceded, disappeared their bones and clapped for Curlz. The crowd clapped and finally dispersed.

 

***

 

In the meantime, Nile and Grillby put the finishing touches on the castle. Grillby had one gyftmas, foolishly decided to decorate a gingerbread house for every friend and family member. He remembered staying up till 3Am, and those had each only been the size of a shoebox. But it was only another ten minutes, and he just had to add a few touches.

 

Grillby had found enough beach glass so that the middle set of windows each had a little pane. He was really proud of his windows, he had been careful to alternate the colors so that the effect was nice. On top of the color coordination, each had some pretty latticework around them thanks to Nile. The other cool part about the build was the bridge, which had crisscross lattices and tiny bits of shells representing little statues. They had run out of shells and beach glass, and while he was tempted to add some more of his own, but did not want to disqualify their entry.

 

 

In the last couple of minutes every monster on the team came back to help smooth out and straighten every detail. The sand seemed to glitter and sparkle in the afternoon sun. As they finished, Sans snapped a picture of Grillby standing next to the Sandcastle.

 

 

“OK, Dudes! Building time is over! Head over to the ice-cream pavillion while the judges score each castle!”

 

*****

Sans and Grillby hugged, both completely exhausted. They looked around the beach. Undyne and company had built a giant crab fighting a mermaid and a dinosaur. Lesser Dog’s team had gone ahead and filled their space with tiny dog statues, some of which had little wings. The teenager’s giant whale was enormous, if a bit lacking in details. The Italian Men’s Club had made a giant soccer ball, another group had made a chariot with Poseidon, and the bikers had made a shark riding a Harley Davidson. There was some really good competition, but the most worrying was the group of women who had also made an enormous castle, with intricate waves splashing onto it, and a giant seashell shaped door.

 

It would be close.

 

As the judges came by, Sans and Grillby were directed to the ice-cream social.

 

A couple of humans who had their hair styled in pigtails and were wearing aprons handed each Monster a cone with two scoops of an ice cream of their choice.

 

“What type of flavors do you two want?”

 

“…uh…I will just have a cone if that is ok…Sans what flavor do you like?...”

 

“oh blueberry sounds fun, so does coffee.”

 

Grillby got his plain waffle cone, and Sans got one scoop of each flavor from the ice cream vendors who looked a bit disappointed at the combination. Sans enjoyed the ice cream, and Grillby enjoyed the cone, and the two were directed to sit on a little patio with some fun striped umbrellas.

 

Papyrus and Nile were adorably eating some ice cream as well, Papyrus had managed to get some stuck to his teeth, much to Nile’s amusement. The Mummy’s laughter turned to disgust- Sans suspected her ice cream had turned sour. She laughed it off, and grabbed one of the pickled eggs from the gas station.

 

Undyne and the kids gobbled down their double chocolate fudge cones, while Alphys and Cordelia laughed with theirs.

 

Red and Violet had gotten raspberry sherbet, they actually both liked chocolate, but were avoiding it in front of the Dogs who were rather allergic. Lesser Dog and Doggo had heard about the giant bones Apple could summon, and the two were now attempting to get on her good side, telling tales of how they guarded Snowden from humans while Bunny, Red, and Ugly tried not to snicker.

 

****

Finally, it was time to announce the winner. Would it be the teenagers with the giant life-like crab? Would it be Lesser Dogs’ cacophony of Dog heads? The Lifeguard stood in the middle of the pavilion with a microphone and a piece of paper. The room got quiet.

 

“This year, we are proud to announce-our three winners!”

 

Murmurs of excitement filled the room.

 

“In third place- for giving us a good laugh- team Sand Skeletons!”

 

A happy bearded biker man came up, accepting the trophy with a whoop!

“In second place, with their elegant mermaid castle-last year’s champions- Team Shovel Knights!”

 

 

Gasps filled the air, as Team Shovel Knights accepted their Trophy.

 

“And in first place-giving us an amazing performance and build-Team Skelemental!”

 

Sans and Apple pushed Nile forward to Accept the trophy- a shovel that had been spray painted gold. Papyrus gave Nile a hug.

 

Monsters and humans all gathered to give them hugs and congratulate them.

 

“your bone magic is so cool!”

 

A bunch of little kids surrounded Sans and Apple.

 

The biker that had cursed out Papyrus earlier came over to apologize and asked if he would summon a bone for him.

 

“You know, you should join our gang-our theme is skeletons!”

 

“OH WOW!”

 

Papyrus had always wanted to be a mascot.

 

After getting into a conversation, the bikers were introduced to Undyne who wanted to know what riding a motorcycle was like.

 

Several of the judges went up to Nile and started to ask her about her architectural inspiration.

 

***

After some celebrations the monsters got back into their cars and headed home, sun setting. Grillby rested his tired on Sans’ skull, just letting it phase into the skeleton. Undyne and Ugly had gotten a ride home from the motorcycle, and Curlz was staying the night with the Fish-family so, there was room for Sans on the ride home.

 

“…Sans…today was crazy…but fun…thanks…”

 

Grillby held Sans hand as they rode home to enjoy the last day of summer, and enjoy their weekend.


	41. Back from the conference

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Haha, seriously, I am back from the conference and from teaching.... teaching took a lot out of me this semester...and then that election happened. 
> 
> I am so sorry for not updating for so long. But I just could not with all the work. 
> 
> Anyway, done teaching for the semester so Hiatus over!
> 
> I am going to aim for twice a week again, and realistically will more promise at least once a week. 
> 
> There is a lot I want to finish up with this story, too many loose ends to just let it go.  
> In the next couple of chapters I am going to address a plot with Sobek and skeletons and also progress Sans and Grillby a bit in some fun ways.

The week before the conference Grillby realized that Sans was pretty bad at poster design. The skeleton had spent the last couple of weeks holed up in his room with headphones on working on a poster presentation and talk, and was still working on the poster like it was the next sculpture of Venus! 

Grillby had tried to join him, holding his hand and generally feeling guilty about surfing the Internet on his new laptop, while Sans worked. Alphys has been given a new laptop for work, and had given him the ‘old’ one, complete with several games installed. The truth was Alphys was always really up to date with technology-so while it was barely a year old. He wished she hadn’t custom painted the cover to have a sexy fish monster on it though…

Grillby had not seen the point of keeping the computer games, but Alphys insisted he needed something more to do besides work and he had no idea how to uninstall them anyway. As Sans typed away and read papers, Grillby attempted to quietly learn how to play this human game about survival in a charming dystopian cube world. Grillby died by digging into lava with a wooden pickaxe. Then a skeleton shot him to death. Then his house burnt down when he tried to decorate it with lava and his character was on fire again. 

Grillby went up in flames

Only his foot had touched the lava for a second! Weren’t humans even a little bit more lava proof than that?

Grillby died another four times. Apparently humans were very not lava proof-worse than animal monsters.

Alphys had said this game was easy-maybe Sans would know how to play? No Sans looked busy. Grillby’s character swam in water to put fire out again.

***

The next day, Sans stared at the poster. He moved a caption a half-inch to the left. He stroked his skull thinking about whether he liked the bar graph, the data over time, or if he really needed to combine the data into a more dynamic figure. Hmmm… Sans closed his eye sockets for a second and thought. He moved a caption back a quarter inch.

Sans spent an hour re-plotting his data so that you could see the averages, error bars, and the changes over time. The default settings made the bars rainbow colored. That probably would not fly.

“hey grillbz- what do you think a professional color is?”

“…I think Bright red is very professional…”

“like a burgundy? or a brick?”

“…No…like a neon red…”

“grillbz, you never did many formal science presentations did you?”

“…Well, back in Hotland Elementary I made a Volcano for the science project-it was pretty cool….unlike some of the other monster’s it actually had lava in it… Ha Hah…it erupted and got lava all over Mr. Molten…”

Grillby’s fiery mouth curled up in a particularly devious smile.

“…I got in so much trouble but it was worth it…what did you do for the science fair?…”

“oh man, it is so embarrassing now, but i did this thing where I tried to calculate where the sun and a few stars were based on the last time the monsters saw it- it was completely wrong, but it won first place because of the effort i put in.”

“… So you… got a prize for effort…”

“yeah. i can be full of energy.”

Grillby looked at Sans, who while working was lounging in bed, sockets half closed, with the music so loud Grillby could hear it through the headphones and a hand in a bag of ketchup flavored potato chips- the antithesis of effort.

“…what type of energy exactly?...like solar energy….or a reading light?...”

“well grillbz-let me show you how energetic i can be.” 

Sans, looking for any opportunity to not do work, jumped off the bed and nuzzled into Grillby.

Grillby’s character died again as he just left the half burned avatar there unattended as night came to make out with Sans.

Grillby got finished off by a skeleton 

***  
At the end of the week, Sans smiled at Grillby’s stone castle he had built with lava fountains, a bar and dance floor, and several guest rooms. Each quest room had a few monsters in it, one had cow monster named Toriel, one had two zombies, and another had a few baby rabbit monsters. Sans laughed when he got to the skeleton room.

“why are all skeletons naked?” Sans tickled Grillby, who laughed before looking at Sans very seriously and stating,

“…Well…they start that way…and they attack me every time I try to give them clothes…”

Sans squinted his eye sockets.

Grillby sighed and moved his character to be with the skeleton threw a leather tunic at it, and showed Sans how it instantly shot him with an arrow.

“…Look, it is the best I can do…so I thought that I would just try to build them little houses inside the castle…also I built them stained glass…and they have little TVs…”

Sans smiled at how the flame monster had built little furniture for the in game skeletons, despite that fact that each was shooting arrows at his character with great gusto. 

Sans ruffled Grillby’s flame hair and gave him a kiss. The skeleton was ready to snuggle up with Grillby and let him teach him how to play the video game, and to just be done with science for a year. Grillby, sensing that Sans was ready to stop working again decided to intervene,

“…Ok…now let’s see your poster…” 

Despite the time and effort, the skeleton was nervous about going over the darn thing. Sans gave Grillby the run through, and to the elemental’s credit-he managed to nod at the important points and even ask a few questions. 

“…Well…Sans I think it is a pretty… exciting presentation…but…don’t you think you should use a more formal font…isn’t that one for comic books?…”

Grillby helped Sans pick out a nice font for everything before showing it to Nile and Papyrus.

Sans went through the presentation again, but each monster added a few suggestions.

“YOU NEED TO MAKE A BOLD STATEMENT, SO BOLDEN YOUR HEADLINES!”

Grillby nodded in agreement as Papyrus bolded the headlines of each figure and had Sans add arrows to his graphs to highlight key points.

Next, Nile went through the whole poster and realigned everything so that every corner and edge was aligned to something else. Nile had recently gotten hired by an architecture firm, and was showing off her design skills. By the end of it, Sans’ poster went from looking passable-to looking professional and neat.

At first Sans hemmed about some of the improvements- 

“well i thought it looked nice”

“are you sure it looks better with the black text, i liked the red?”

However, as Sans let others help the final project looked better and better. Surrendering himself to critique was stressful at first, but now calming. He ended up taking every suggestion, well except for Papyrus’ suggestion to make the stars look cooler by giving them sunglasses.

Sans hi-fived everyone, and thanked them by making extra chocolatey-chocolate chip cookies before he left- Sans style! 

Papyrus frowned. Sans style meant Sans took out the pre-made cookie dough he has hidden behind the ketchup.

Since coming to the surface, luxuries such as pre-made cookie dough made spontaneous cookies from Sans occur with higher frequency. Still- Papyrus cringed as Sans did not even shape the cookies into balls-he just sliced the dough with a knife into little discs and put them on the tray.

“DON’T YOU NEED TO GREASE THE PAN?”

“nope-got the kind that says you don’t need to do that.”

“SANS HOW HAVE YOU MANAGED TO EVEN MAKE THE FINE SPORT OF BAKING LAZY?” 

“baking is a sport now? well i’m not really a sports guy.”

Papyrus frowned- but later the tall skeleton had no issue chomping down on a cookie dipped in milk.

************************

Obviously Papyrus did not want Sans shortcutting to some Science conference, and frankly a series of shortcuts to an unknown location would not have been easy even at the peak of magical health. Sans- who was all bones and traveling with just his notebooks, a change of clothes, and laptop had breezed past security- was flying in a plane to get to the conference on the other side of the continent. You know, the conference that would make or break his career as a scientist on the surface. That conference.

As he nervously went over his presentation for the 115th time, a kindly old lady who was sharing the seat aisle with him had told him that if he looked out the window he could see the surface from below once the were in the air. Sans lifted the covered window- letting the light shine in to view the plane as is tracked over the runway. It was pretty boring- the process took longer than Sans had imagined, apparently their plane was the last to take off in a long line of others, and Sans could not help staring at an article his boss had told him to read. Reading the first sentence over and over.

Suddenly, Sans felt the plane turn- and watched as it lined up with the runway. 

“Please stow any carry on items in the pockets in front of you.”

Sans stowed the printed article in the pocket, and suddenly realized he had not read the safety manual that was tucked in it…

Thankfully the flight attendants went over how to use the oxygen mask (Sans did not really need that), how to use his seat as a flotation device (Papyrus could use one of these seat cushions), and where the nearest exit was located (behind him). And then before Sans realized it, he was sitting back, his head pressed against the top cushion as the plane sped down the runway-and he was not sure if his bones or the plane were rattling more.

He felt the wheels lift off from the ground, and as his bones stopped shaking he stole a glance out the window as the lady had suggested.

Driving to Arizona had helped Sans realize the size of the Surface was larger than previously imagined, but wow…he watched Ebott turn into a tiny dot, and as he lifted off realized every monster he knew, aside from perhaps Mettaton and Jimmy Hotpants were in fact in that tiny dot. Wow. Somewhere down there the tiny speck that was Grillby was driving home with Papyrus from the airport. 

Sans looked around the airplane-while most humans were staring at their laptops, or books, or taking a nap there were some enjoying the scenery- so he would not stand out too much. Sans watched and watched- and when the houses were lost in the clouds he simply sighed and watched the clouds until he was surrounded by pure white. He closed his eyes for a bit- half dreaming about flying through the sky with Grillby. At some point the flight attendant and Lady next to him poked him awake to ask if he wanted a free drink and some pretzels. 

 

The ginger ale and ice was nice and cool in the plastic cup- and Sans felt chill as a cucumber. As the cart made its way bake up the aisle- the fasten seatbelt sign flashed- and there was a minute of turbulence- causing his bones to rattle. Sans did not mind too much but a few of the kids on the flight started to cry.

Ugh- Sans looked out the window- his inner peace temporarily shattered by tiny crying humans. He wondered the turbulence came with the plane lowering back out of the clouds, over the city at night- its sparkling orange lights reminding him of a certain someone. 

He clutched his seat and tried to take a non-shaky picture for the elemental, who after the parasailing seemed to be obsessed with the idea of flying and was a bit jealous that Sans got to fly in a plane. He clutched the seat as the turbulence picked up once again for a few seconds.

The woman next to him, her silvery grey hair styled into a wispy bob, mistook his rattling for fear, and gently patted his hand. 

“Have no fear for-”

Sans was then roped into a religious discussion where he was told the wonders of human religion for the remainder of the flight. Sans good-naturedly went along with it, and was given a set of human prayer things called rosary beads- but really he just wanted to watch the landing. 

Sans was not particularly religious, but he had to admit that the repetition of poems had been a nice way to distract him from what he was actually nervous about: the conference. He saved the prayer beads for Nile and Papyrus who would probably enjoy learning about the human culture.

****************************************  
The massive two week conference itself had been pretty busy-constant talked that started at 8AM and went till 10PM in hour and a half sessions, poster sessions, and tech demos. Even lunch had not been safe from science, as other scientists asked him about his work. 

Sans tried his best to shorten his life’s work into a two-minute blurb for each encounter. Things were technically going all right- when he presented his poster as long as he stuck to the script his PI wanted him to talk about it was great. Or when he asked the scientists about their work it was fine. But none of the scientists really wanted to hear his thought on science and magic, or on teleport theory, or on anything fun really. 

“so, uh yeah, i used to work on teleport theory see.” And then Sans short-cutted behind the scientist.

“Oh, cool magic trick, how did you do it?”

But they never believed him. By the third day, Sans just stuck to the poster data. 

Sans had always been passionate about science, but he felt like he was being held back. Alphys had warned him that humans really did not want to hear talk about magic theory- that it would take a few years to get them excited- but he had hoped for a little more excitement at such a big conference. 

At least the place they were staying had been nice- near some beach and human theme park. The theme park was too expensive, and even if he had wanted to go the skeleton wasted all his spending money on getting everyone he knew a fun souvenir. He looked up at the palm trees and the beaches and the theme park, maybe it would be a nice place to vacation if he hadn’t been working the whole time. Didn’t they have ne of these places near where he lived-maybe Grillby would like it? 

Now that he was on his way back, he knew what to expect and attempted to take a picture with his phone for Grillby. The monster had been texting him like crazy the entire conference, wanting to talk. Sans had been only able to call pretty late at night most nights, and had fallen asleep on the phone talking to Grillby more than one night. He was just happy to be going home.

 

**********  
Grillby came to pick Sans up from the airport with Papyrus and Stan- the Tsundereplane. Grillby had been absolutely excited that Sans got to fly in a plane, and had been talking about plane facts and flying with Papyrus, Red, and anyone who seemed remotely interested all week in his bar. 

Every time one of these conversations started and Stan was around, the plane would lean against the wall, pout, but turn its head to listen intently. Grillby could not tell if Stan had been upset or not upset that Grillby had not invited him to the airport, so after checking with Papyrus, he invited him along. 

“Well, it’s not like I wanted to go, but I suppose I have nothing better to do this afternoon.”

So-just like that the group left work for the airport.

Oh wow, the airport was so cool- Grillby, Papyrus, and Stan parked in the arrival parking lot and just watched planes take off and land for an hour while eating chips in the car.

Stan, pushed off his indifference for a few minutes and got out of the car to show Papyrus and Grillby the best landing techniques in the parking lot. Grillby could not tell exactly what specific technique Stan was using, but the loop-de-loops were cool. Eventually some airport staff came rushing over, alarmed at the unregistered aircraft, but after finding out that Stan was basically a living airplane they were lining up to ask if they could take pictures with them. 

“Well, sure, I mean…ok. Not that I like the spotlight.” 

Grillby and Papyrus ended up getting left behind as Stan was whisked inside the airport to meet everyone, as pilots and humans swarmed him. 

“I’ll get home without you guys!”

The monsters did not mind, though, as it was time to pick Sans up. The elemental was so excited; he had even managed to buy roses. In movies with airplanes humans always brought flowers for whomever they were picking up. Grillby had been a bit excited watching the planes take off, and two or three of the leaves were burned.

Grillby stepped into the airport, bouquet in hand. 

Immediately seventeen airport security, TSA, and airport staff swarmed him with varying levels of alarm and politeness in their voices.

“We are sorry sir, but we cannot let you into the airport.”

“WHAT do you think you are doing walking into an airport.”

“We have a-I kid you not- man made of fire trying to enter the airport-“

“Code Red.”

“Well kind of Code Red…we have it contained.”

Grillby, who was being crushed slightly with the roses, managed to gasp,

“…What is going on?... You are crushing me!...”

The security did not hear him. Grillby’s flames started to die low a bit as the oxygen got cut off.

Papyrus stepped forward.

“WHAT IS THE PROBLEM, WHY ARE YOU CRUSHING MY FRIEND?”

Papyrus’ louder more noticeable voice was noticed by the security. More importantly, a bunch of other passengers turned to look at the scene. 

A TSA member, not wanting the whole airport to go into panic, signaled and the group of angry airport personnel formed a twice as loose-100% less crushing ring. Half of Grillby’s bouquet fell to the ground. 

The biggest, oldest, grayest security man stepped back and signaled for everyone else to back away.

“Target seems non-hostile, I think I can handle this without everyone else.”

An airport staff member, turned to the small crowd with another security member.

“False alarm. False alarm.”

A few guards mumbled for a second and then all but the big one left. The firmly grabbed Grillby by the sweater sleeve on his left side and started walking back through the entrance.

Grillby looked at the man’s nametag and tried to read it-but his flames were swirling, and he felt like his head was spinnin.

“…Uh…Sir….wH00..are you…dragging…m0..0ut…of the airp00t..?...”

Grillby was not feeling right and he was talking in fire-speak a bit, but the guard seemed to get the gist of it.

“Uh, I don’t know how to tell you this, but you are a security risk.”

“…I am a Who0-who-wHAT…?” Grillby sparked a little.

“Uhh Mam-er Sir, you need to calm down. Look, we do not allow flammables or explosives in the airport.”

“…I AM NOT EXPLOSIVE!...AND I AM NOT FLYING ON THE PLANE, JUST PICKING UP MY BOYFRIEND FROM HIS FLIGHT…” Grillby’s hair sparked a bit more and he turned a brighter yellow color.

“Sir, I repeat you need to calm down or we will call the police. Normally we arrest those who bring weapons into the airport-but uh, we uh are willing to make an exception because of your, uh, condition. ”

“…MY…CONDITION…oO0o…THIS IS DISCRIMINATION!...” The room turned black for a half second as a FIGHT GUI almost triggered. Grillby kept it down, but he was annoyed. His hair was now sparking more furiously, and the security guard looked concerned.

The security started to move his hand to his radio and something that looked like a stun gun. 

Papyrus had worked for mall security. He had not worked their long, but he remembered having a stun gun. He had never had to use it, but he had remembered how some other guards were a bit more stun-happy. Papyrus, not wanting to learn what a human prison was like decided to step in,

“SORRY OFFICER, GRILLBY HERE WAS JUST SO… EXCITED TO SEE THE HUMAN AIRPORT, HE IS A LITTLE… DISSAPOINTED….ERR, GRILLBY, LET’S JUST CALM DOWN A BIT. SURELY WE CAN JUST WAIT FOR MY BROTHER TO COME THROUGH. I KNOW HE WALKS RATHER SLOWLY, BUT HE CAN FIND THE EXIT ON HIS OWN.”

Grillby stopped fuming for a second to notice the security guard’s hand.

“…Ok…I suppose we can just wait here…” Grillby stopped sparking for a second

The security guard relaxed his shoulders for a second before bristling up again at full height, and nodded,

“Alright, I will wait here with you-we really do not want to start a problem with Monsters-Look-I don’t have a problem with you-but well-the other passengers would just be uncomfortable”

Grillby nodded, but Papyrus noticed that the elemental looked like his head was simmering slowly. What then passed was the next uncomfortable three minutes and thirty seconds in recent memory- Papyrus knew because Papyrus counted every second as Grillby glared at the half crushed and flowers and the security guard stared at Grillby like any one of those seconds would be the last before an explosion.

At three minutes and thirty-one seconds Grilby’s phone buzzed. The elemental quickly pulled his cell out of his pocket-

hey grillbz, turn around!

Sans popped in behind Grillby using a shortcut. The security guard, looked a bit surprised, but he had been so intently staring at the elemental, that Papyrus supposed he did not realize it was magic.

“hey grillbz! hey bro. woah- are those flowers for me they look great!”

Sans picked up the half roasted, crushed bouquet and made a big show about smelling them. and held them with his computer bag.

“…Uh…sorry…they might smell a bit burnt…”

“heh heh, well grillbz, this might come as a shock to you but skeletons don’t have the best sense of smell, so don’t worry.” 

Grillby’s face managed to form a smile and the elemental hugged Sans, his hair sparking, still.

“hey grillbabe, how’s it going?”

Grillby sighed and hugged Sans, for a good minute not saying anything. 

“aww, I missed you, too.”

“ALRIGHT SANS! GREAT TO SEE YOU TOO, LET’S GO HOME!”

Papyrus grabbed Sans and Grillby and marched them to the car- he could feel the security man’s eyes drilling into the back of his skull. 

As Papyrus pulled away, the security man finally stepped back into the airport.

***********

“so, uh, you two doing ok?”

Papyrus turned the corvette onto the highway and gripped the wheel tightly and sighed. Grillby leaned into Sans dejectedly and just let his flames merge with Sans’ shoulder while groaning,

“…So I am apparently not very welcome at the airport…since I am a weapon.”

“a...uh…weapon? that is ridiculous-you are the kindest monster i know. is that why that wet blanket was staring into your flames?”

“THE SECURITY GUARD WAS READY TO STUN GRILLBY BECAUSE HIS FLAMES WERE SPARKING.”

“…Well my flames wouldn’t have been sparking…if he hadn’t already half crushed me… and dragged me out of the airport…”

“well, then. if that is how they are gonna treat you, maybe i will just travel some other way next time. i hear humans have other ways to get around we could try out.” 

Sans hugged Grillby rather defiantly. 

“…Sans… planes are the fastest…don’t say that…it-it isn’t a big deal…I...I guess I just make some humans nervous....besides what about next years conference?…”

“well, first of all, they need to get over being nervous around you. and second, eh-well, we will see if i still have a conference to go to next year. the other scientists weren’t interested in teleport theory-just bring star movement calculations.”

“…huh…Sans…but your poster was so good!...”

“YEAH, NYEH HEH, IT WAS SUPER FILLED WITH SMART STUFF.”

“no, no, they liked the poster. it’s just that the poster is not what i really want- eh never mind. what’s it been like at home?”

“OH SANS YOU MISSED SO MUCH IN THE LAST COUPLE WEEKS! ALSO YOU NEED A COSTUME! DID YOU KNOW THE HUMANS HAVE THIS HOLIDAY THAT WORSHIPS SKELETONS?”

“uh-wait what?”

“…It celebrates the end of the harvest…and they like to dress up in costumes… that includes skeletons…something spooky, or cute…skeletons just seem to be the most popular…”

“uh-the most popular?”

“WELL OF COURSE THE SKELETONS ARE THE MOST POPULAR! IT HAS BEEN GREAT FOR MY BURGEONING MODELING CAREER, TOO. JUST THIS WEEK THREE STORES ASKED ME TO MODEL HIGH COUTURE OUTFITS FOR THEM IN THEIR WINDOWS! PEOPLE WERE LINING UP TO TAKE PICTURES OF ME WITH THE HOLIDAY COUTURE, NYEH HEH HEH.”

"...I have a picture..."

Grillby showed Sans several photos of Papyrus doing catwalks and high end poses in front of the local mall's stores wearing what looked like a cat mask, some sort of pirate themed outfit, and a tuxedo. It looks like there was quite a crowd. 

"huh, high-couture fashion is so weird." Sans stared at the stuffed green parrot on Papyrus' shoulder.

"WELL, LOOK I HAVE TO START SOMEWHERE!"

"...I just wished elementals were more popular...I couldn't find a single costume at the mall... we found skeletons, mummies, dinosaurs, even a fish monster for Undyne.... I mean I guess we didn't find any cow or goat monster costumes for Tori...but Frisk still found enough parts to make it work..."

“i bet elementals are more popular in other areas. probably each area has a local favorite. maybe this area just isn't familiar with them?”

“…Ooh maybe..."

Grillby sparked up a bit

"…Anyway the bar is having a costume contest tonight to celebrate…Undyne is giving out prizes for different categories… cutest, scariest, most original, and most elaborate….so I took the liberty of ordering you a costume…”

“sweet, what is it?”

“…I want to keep it a surprise but it matches mine!...It is a really scary one though…!”

“NYEH HEH, GRILLBY, IT IS NOT ACTUALLY THAT SCAR-”

“…A surprise Papyrus!...”

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you again, and sorry for the hiatus.


	42. Halloween part 1.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans is back just in time for Halloween! Will the monster learn the true meaning of the Holiday? What did Grillby get for a costume?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I am still back! I am going to keep writing, but want to give an update today. It is a little longer than normal (normally I aim for 4,000 words). The next chapter is the Halloween party where we will meet a new monster. Following will be a fun thanksgiving.
> 
> I hope you don't mind the late holidays, but I hope to have a Christmas/Gyftmas chapter out by Christmas!

On the way home from the airport, Papyrus took a detour at the grocery store to show Sans the human’s harvest festival decorations.

 

Sans could not help but blush profusely as a full height stand of skeletons made with plastic swayed in the store aisle. A sign said,

 

“CHEAP, OUTDOOR! POSE-ABLE! 5-foot skeletons!”

 

Sans snickered a bit.

 

Aside from skeleton figures there were skeleton glasses, bowls with skulls, decorated skull heads, skull lamps, skeleton themed candles... Next to all the décor were giant bags of fun size candy: chocolates, licorice, and caramels.

 

To be fair there was also a lot of spider, zombie, pumpkin, and cat stuff-but the skeleton thing was pretty heavy handed. An employee came by to straighten the skeletons, and awkwardly hugged a few in the process.

 

Sans and Papyrus turned even brighter shades of blue and orange respectively.

 

“so uh, did nile see the skeleton display?”

 

“NYEH, HEH, HEH…WELL…YES…NILE UH. SHE SAID IT WAS GREAT, BOUGHT ONE AND THEN DECORATED OUR DOORSTOP WITH IT-I MEAN SHE PUT CLOTHES ON IT! SHE FOUND A MUMMY ONE, TOO.”

 

Papyrus blushed even more-shades of orange Grillby did not think were possible for one not made of fire.

 

“ok, well i get nile, but just, what is with humans and naked skeletons?”

 

“LOOK, IT’S NOT OUR FAULT HUMANS FIND SKELETONS ATTRACTIVE!” Papyrus shouted.

 

Several humans turned their heads toward the trio.

 

“i mean, i do not know how comfortable i am with that. also aren’t we associated with death?”

 

“SANS! WHAT DOES A HARVEST FESTIVAL HAVE TO DO WITH DEATH? LOOK, THE OTHER SYMBOLS ARE PUMPKINS, CANDIES, AND CATS… ALL PRETTY JOYFUL THINGS, NO? STOP BEING SO CYNICAL AND ENJOY THIS CHEERFUL HOLIDAY!”

 

Grillby nodded,

 

“…Sorry Sans…all the humans at the bar have been talking about dressing up to look sexy… and the food…I asked my dad and he thinks it sounds like a classic human feast... look…at least you have something…i mean i guess humans have firework holidays…but…no fire monster plushies…”

 

Grillby squeezed a plush skeleton and it went ‘Boo.’ Sans had to admit that Grillby and Papyrus had a good point. And if Afi agreed he supposed it was true.

 

Grillby smiled happily and squeezed it again.

 

“boo”

 

“yeah, but, jeez, humans are really brazen. the last time i saw stuff like this i was in a very interesting shop at the capitol.”

 

Grillby, Sans, and Papyrus snickered.

 

“also, if this is a harvest festival where are all the vegetables, why candy??”

 

“…Well…I guess they are still in the vegetable isle…except the pumpkins and gourds are more popular…they must be humans favorites… I actually wanted to get one while we are here to decorate the bar with…I would just get one here…but Papyrus wants us to stop at a place that sells fresher ones…”

 

“LOOK, THESE PUMPKINS ARE OK ON THE CHEAP, BUT UNDYNE SAID IF YOU WANT A REAL FESTIVAL PUMPKIN, WE HAVE TO GO TO THIS PLACE DOWN THE ROAD!”

 

Grillby hugged the stuffed skeleton again while Papyrus bought a festive skeleton and cat decorated bowl.

 

Sans bought Grillby the stuffed skeleton.

“…his name is…Sans Junior..”

 

“pretty sure that is a lady skeleton.”

 

“SANS HOW WOULD YOU KNOW?”

 

“well the pelvis is rather different. Males usually have less of a flare and have a more soul shape overall”

 

“…hmm…how about… Sansmantha?...”

 

“nah, looks like a grillberta, heh heh heh.”

 

“IF YOU TWO NAME YOUR MONSTERLINGS THAT I AM TAKING CUSTODY!”

 

***

 

Next stop was the pumpkin patch.

 

“Well seeing as it is Halloween today, most of the pumpkin places have sold out of their best! But not here at Biggy’s Orchard!”

 

“NYEH HEH HEH, EXACTLY! UNDYNE SAID YOU WERE THE BEST!”

 

“Wait! Undyne…the fish monster?”

 

“YES, UNDYNE MY OLD CAPTAIN!”

 

“Is she married to a dinosaur and has three fish-dinosaur kids?”

 

“YUP! THAT’S THE ONE!”

 

“She’s the one that stomped thirteen pumpkins in our field! Smashed them into little pieces!”

 

“UHH.”

 

“I was ready to turn her into a tuna sandwich, but then her generous wife paid for all thirteen pumpkins! And then they bought another ten to take home! It was so weird, they even took most of the smashed bits.”

 

The man pointed to a wall of families who had picked pumpkins with their kids. Mostly humans, a couple of rabbit monsters, and there was Undyne and her family-both covered and surrounded with pumpkins.

 

Sans smiled, it was a great picture.

 

“So uh, you monsters looking to smash a bunch of the pumpkins and make a mess?”

 

“UHH, WELL, WE ARE MOST CERTAINLY **NOT** HERE TO SMASH PUMPKINS, JUST PICK UP A FEW-NYEH HEH- LIKE ONE OR TWO FOR DECORATION.”

 

The farmer looked both relieved and disappointed.

 

“Uh, so are you looking for ones to wear on your head then?”

 

“SIR, WHY WOULD WE PUT THEM ON OUR HEADS-”

 

“Sorry! Sorry! But I mean your friend there is made of fire-a jack-o lantern would be so cool on his head. And-well in the cartoons sometimes the skeletons put pumpkins on their heads!”

 

The farmer pointed to a paper decoration he had of two naked skeletons wearing pumpkins for heads. Asgore-that was awkward.

 

Thankfully the man then pointed to a jack-o-lantern he had carved that had a candle in it. Its mouth even looked a bit like Grillby’s kind of jagged and half formed.

 

“…wait…you have a fire tradition!...but it is about skeletons somehow?...”

 

“Uh, sure thing son! I mean the jack-o-lantern thing is more popular than the skeleton with pumpkin head decoration. Almost every human household will have a jack-o-lantern. Based off a spooky Irish legend of a conman named Jack who tricked the devil himself and was forced to wander the earth with a lantern made of a vegetable, unwelcome in heaven or hell. Most people decorate their front porch with them, and that’s why pumpkins are popular in general.”

 

“that’s a human religion thing grillbz!” Sans remembered a few of those words from his plane lecture.

 

“…Oh my goodness… I need to get one for the bar, and for my parents, and for out doorstep…although…we may have to make them tomorrow…” Grillby’s flames danced.

 

“WELL, I CERTAINLY DO NOT WANT TO WEAR ONE AS A FASHION STATEMENT! AND OUR PORCH HAS…ENOUGH FESTIVE DÉCOR. BUT THE BAR NEEDS SOME DECORATION.”

 

“Oh, well, pumpkins are useful for more than just decoration, if you hollow them out, you can use the inside for a traditional pumpkin pie. I mean Thanksgiving is the next holiday coming up, and it is almost unheard of not to have pumpkin pie. Yah know, most just buy the pumpkin from the can, but my wife and I feel like the best pies are made with fresh ingredients.”

 

The old man tucked his hands into his jean pants as he talked.

 

“OH YES, MY GIRLFRIEND IS SO EXCITED TO MAKE FRESH PUMPKIN PIE. WE WERE GOING TO GET ONE FROM THE GROCERY STORE, BUT THESE COULD WORK?”

 

“Well, for bakers, my wife and I have a special patch on the other side of the hill up yonder! There is a little sign labeled Cinderalla pumpkins! They have a harder, thicker skin, but the flesh is sweeter and more delicious then the decorative jack-o-lantern pumpkins! Those ones, I wouldn’t eat, well except to toast the seeds.”

 

“…Ooh…you can toast the seeds?...”

 

“Sure thing!”

 

“...I am so excited…”

 

“Well have fun, and remember-once you pick it from the stem, step on it, or smash it into little bits-it is yours! So be careful!”

 

“…Ok!…”

 

Sans, Grillby, and Papyrus tiptoed into the pumpkin patch-cautiously avoiding even stepping on a stem. Grillby was now giddy, though.

 

“…So humans kind of worship fire in their own way...with vegetables...I will take it!...we need to find a few really big pumpkins then!”

 

It was kind of cool to see the pumpkin patch- the monsters had grown some crops Underground- mostly mushroom themed or root vegetables, it wasn’t like a garden was completely new. But the pumpkin patch blew the turnip farms away.

 

This patch took up an entire hill, the bottom area they were at seemed to be picked of all the biggest, with small green spotted ones. But up at the top of the hill, they could see some huge ones!

 

“I AM GOING TO FIND THE ABSOLUTE BEST PUMPKIN! THE GREATEST PUMPKIN FOR DELICIOUS PUMPKIN PIE! AND ALSO THE BEST DECORTIVE PUMPKIN!”

 

Sans winked at Grillby mischievously and grabbed the elemental’s hand,

 

“not if we find it first!”

 

Grillby found himself teleported to the top of the hill in a flash of blue magic.

 

Grillby looked at the bottom of the hill, Papyrus was a tiny angry white speck. Still, his tiny angry voice was loud enough to hear from the hilltop,

 

“SANS SKELETON! IF YOU ARE GOING TO RECKLESSLY USE MAGIC AT LEAST TAKE ME!”

 

The tiny dot that was Papyrus then started to huff and puff up the towering hill while waving tiny stick arms.

 

“allright, grillby, we have a few minutes to grab one before Papyrus snatches the best one!”

 

Grillby smiled at Sans and nodded. The pair then ran around the top of the hill like madmen, Sans flittering in and out and Grillby lumbering around.

 

“…Sans… I think this pumpkin weighs more than you do!...” Grillby wobbled a bit as he held up an oblong shaped pumpkin the size of his torso.

 

Sans tried to hold the pumpkin and his arm disconnected at the elbow it was so heavy. Thankfully Grillby saved it. The pair kept looking for a more manageable one.

 

“ooh! This one is perfectly shaped-the pum-king.” Sans found a very large punny pumpkin that had a bunch of lumps at the top, making it look like a crown.

 

“Ooh! We need that one Sans!”

 

Sans plucked the pumpkin from the stem and hovered it in the air with his recently returned (and recovered) gravity magic.

 

“…Ooh! Sans…this one reminds me of you!...” Grillby held up a pumpkin that he could hold in a hand, all white and perfectly round.

 

“hey, that looks like a different variety, i like it!”

 

Grillby looked around,

 

“…Cotton Candy pumpkins, two for five…Cotton Candy…if you were a pumpkin, this would be it…it souns so sweet…and it looks like your skull”

 

Grillby picked the small, perfectly smooth pumpkin and carried it.

 

“…Ok… so we have two…let me get a couple for my parents…and Magmus…”

 

“lets give your dad the pum-king. he seems like a guy that appreciates a good pun.”

 

“…And let me get another white one for my mother…when she gets mad her flames go this color…” Grillby snickered and picked a second white pumpkin, much larger, but still nice and smooth.

 

“awesome! Then we just need to find one for your bro and me. Hmm, this one is a nice shade of red.”

 

Sans bent over to pick a pumpkin but found a hole in it.

 

“…bleh…” seceral slugs oozed out of the broken pumpkin. He wondered if this was Undyne’s doing, or just bad luck.

 

Sans turned the nasty pumpkin over, to find another pumpkin that had been partially hidden-its top half in the leaves, its bottom half in the sun.

 

“wait-grillbz, this one matches your flames! It even has the green tips” It was the exact shade of orange red as Grillby, and the parts that had been shaded from the sun were more of a green color-it was perfect.

 

“since you have a sans one, this will be my grillby pumpkin.”

 

“…Aww…Sans… lets put them on the bar together!...”

 

“that would be real sweet grillbz.” Sans nuzzled into Grillby.

 

“SANS! GRILLBY! ARE YOU BOTH LAZING ABOUT! YOU HAVE ONLY MANAGED TO FIND TINY PUMPKINS! CHECK OUT THIS ONE!”

 

Papyrus was carrying what might have been the largest pumpkin imaginable- as big as the skeleton’s torso. And he was carrying it on his shoulder.

 

“paps, I forget how strong you are sometimes.”

 

“WELL, I DO TRY TO KEEP MY PHYSIQUE IN TOP FORM! I MEAN, ANY DAY NOW THE ROYAL GUARD MIGHT RE-BAND!”

 

Papyrus then showed off by tossing the pumpkin by a foot and catching it while flexing. Sans tried not to worry about Papyrus dropping the pumpkin.

 

“ANYWAY, I CAME UP HERE TO GET ONE OF THE BAKING PUMPKINS AND TO COLLECT YOU TWO LOVEBIRDS! NYEH HEH HEH, THE SUN IS STARTING TO SET!”

 

“…OK!...Let me just grab one for Magmus... this one should do…” Grillby grabbed a third pumpkin, a bit big and bumpy, but a nice red color that matched his rather clumpy brother.

 

Papyrus, who had been the most worried about time, of course took the longest to pick the most perfectly un-bruised Cinderella pumpkin for baking.

 

Finally, Papyrus found the ultimate cooking pumpkin, which was also pretty big.

 

“NILE IS GOING TO LOVE THIS!”

 

“bro, let me carry that one for you, since you have the big one.”

 

Sans was carrying the pum-king, the Grillby pumpkin, and the big red Magmus pumpkin using his gravity magic, twirling them around in the air. Grillby was cradling the Sans pumpkin and the one for his mother.

 

“DEAR BROTHER, DO NOT BE SILLY- FOR I THE GREAT PAPYRUS AM THE PUMPKIN CARRYING CHAMPION! NYEH HEH HEH!”

 

Papyrus Posed at the top of the hill, giant pumpkin on the shoulder, and the smaller baking pumpkin in the other hand. It was fine until he took a step and lost his balance, throwing the larger pumpkin into the air.

 

“NYEHHHHH!!!”

 

Sans quickly grabbed the huge pumpkin with gravity magic, and Papyrus buckled in, hugged the baking pumpkin, and tumbled down the hill in a ball.

 

“crap! paps!”

 

“…Oh Asgore…is he going to be ok?...”

 

Grillby and Sans half ran and half slid down the hill after him,

 

“NYEHHH!!!”

 

Papyrus continued to roll to the bottom of the hill,

 

Bump! NYEH! Bump!

 

As the skeleton hurtled to the bottom, Sans was worried he would hit something- but thankfully Papyrus came to a stop in front of the gourd stand. The farmer ran out of the house and clapped as Papyrus stood up with the baking pumpkin-unscratched. The skeleton was a bit dusty, and had a pumpkin stem stuck in his arm joint, but looked ok.

 

“papyrus! you need to be more careful! you could have cracked your skull on that cart!” Sans and Grillby had slid/ ran down the hill- miraculously not tripping themselves.

 

“FEAR NOT! I AM UNHARMED!”

 

Papyrus Posed dramatically again with Nile’s pumpkin, wobbled, and then fell on his skeletal bum.

 

“OK, WELL NILE’S PUMPKIN IS UNHARMED AND I AM **MOSTLY** UNHARMED!”

 

“Well, looks like you fellas had a good time! And you managed to save your lass’ pumpkin-good man! Here! I will tally these up for you.”

 

After paying the farmer for the produce, and taking a commemorative photo with Papyrus shouldering the huge pumpkin and Sans floating the rest, the farmer looked delighted. He admired the magical twirling objects and took a good five pictures.

 

“WOW! Ooh before you go! That magic trick was amazing! Would you let me put that on an advert?”

 

“sure thing!”

 

“Well, then take a complimentary couple of gourds! And you-big guy! Here! Take your lass to this.”

 

The farmer gave them a few bumpy yellow and green gourds, which would admittedly look great. The farmer then reached deep into his pockets to pull out a pair of faded yellow tickets labeled “ SUNNY FARM CORN MAZE.” He reached his hand out to Papyrus. The skeleton squinted,

 

“HUH, WHAT IS A CORN MAZE?”

 

“It’s the next county over-a big maze of corn that you walk through. It is fun! A Maize Maze!”

 

San’s eye socket lit up.

 

“They are keeping it up till the 10th, so go before they harvest it. They always give me spare tickets, but me and the Missus are not really into them anymore.”

 

Papyrus rubbed his aching skull and thanked the man. Grillby and Sans loaded the pumpkins into the backseat of the convertible, and Papyrus squashed himself into the back, handing Grillby the keys.

 

“EH, GRILLBY, I THINK WE NEED A NICE RELAXED RIDE HOME, CAN YOU DRIVE?”

 

****

 

After a particularly careful and slow drive home from Grillby, the monsters arrived home Sans noticed a few things had changed.

 

One, there was indeed a skeleton dressed in a crop top and short shorts decorating the front door, with a plastic mummy in a coffin next to it. The mummy had some of the lipstick Nile sometimes used decorating her face and a nice green skirt/sweater combo.

 

Two, as Sans entered the house there was a tower of tiny burger shaped things of various sizes in the kitchen.

 

Three, Catsup did not leave Nile’s lap to greet him.

 

Four, the hamburger things were also taking over the living room table and the dining room table, and Sans guessed the fridge.

 

_“OH HELLO SANS! I HOPE THE CONFERENCE WAS FUN! I WOULD HAVE COME TO PICK YOU UP, BUT I JUST GOT BACK FROM WORK.”_

“hey nile, good to see you!”

Nile was sitting next to a couple bags, tied tightly.

 

_“PAPYRUS! YOU GOT THE FESTIVE SQUASH, IT LOOKS GREAT!”_

Nile walked up to Papyrus and gave him a sweet kiss on the cheekbone as he handed her the special pumpkin.

 

“OH YES, IT WAS NO TROUBLE AT ALL!”

 

Grillby and Sans held back a snicker as Papyrus rubbed the back of his neck. Papyrus turned to see the bags.

 

“OH NILE, OH MY ASGORE! YOU GOT THE SECRET COSTUMES?” Papyrus jumped up and down in delight.

 

_“YES! I AM SO EXCITED!”_

“AHH ME TOO! WE ARE GOING TO WIN THE COSTUME CONTEST FOR SURE!”

“uh secret?”

 

“AFTER I DROP YOU TWO OFF, NILE AND I ARE GOING TO COME IN SECRET! SEE IF YOU CAN FIGURE OUT WHO WE ARE!”

 

“oh that sounds fun! but i’ll be able to spot you”

 

“NO JUDGE POWERING! BY EYE SOCKET ONLY!”

 

“ok, no judge power- but i bet a bottle of milk i’ll find you.”

 

“MAKE THAT A GALLON OF MILK.”

 

“ok, but if i spot you, you get me a gallon of ketchup.”

 

“NYEH, HEH , HEH! IT IS A DEAL!”

 

“well, i will definitely ketch-you. your on bro!”

 

Sans had no idea how Papyrus- a roughly six-foot skeleton with rather memorable bone structure could possibly hope to disguise himself. This was the easiest gallon of ketchup he would ever win.

 

Grillby wondered how much ketchup Sans could drink at once if he wanted that Gallon.

 

“oh, hey i got you guys some presents, uh i didn’t wrap them, but here ya go!”

 

Sans handed Nile and Papyrus commemorative Mickey Mouse ear hats, and gave Grillby the headband version.

 

“uh, there was this really cool theme-park there, it was too expensive to go by my self, but they had a souvenir shop at the hotel. the salesperson said that these were the most popular item-its based on this mouse mascot.”

 

“OOH HOW FASCINATING!”

 

_“DO YOU THINK HUMANS LIKE MICE THEN?”_

“oh yeah, and paps and nile, this lady gave me these on the plane ride-they are called rosary beads, for some sort of prayer, sounded right up your alley!”

 

“WOWIE, IS IT LIKE A NECKLACE?” Papyrus held up the red painted wooden beads.

 

“no, it is actually disrespectful to wear them, just like do this thing where you count them and say a prayer on each one.”

 

“WELL THEY ARE STILL PRETTY, HERE NILE.”

 

_“OOH WOW, HOW INTERESTING. WHAT RELIGION WAS IT-”_

Nile touched the wooden rosary beads and the little beads shriveled into dust in her hand and made a pile of rotten dust on the table.

 

_“OH NO, OH NO! SORRY SANS. I SUPPOSE MY MAGIC IS ACTING UP AGAIN. I, UM. IT IS NOT USALLY THAT BAD, UM, I CAN GET YOU ANOTHER ONE.”_

Sans straightened his jaw,

 

“uh, well it was a present for you, but uh, next time i’ll grab ya a plastic one! don’t worry.”

 

Grillby looked at Nile, who seemed upset.

 

“NILE, IT IS OK! LET US LOOK UP THE RELIGIOUS DEVICE ONLINE, LATER.”

 

_“UM, HEH, YEAH. LET ME JUST HOLD OFF ON THE PIE FOR THE NIGHT THOUGH, DON’T WANT TO MAKE A ROTTEN SQUASH PIE!”_

Nile was trying to be cheery, but still looked upset.

 

 _“IT IS JUST THAT BECAUSEE OF THE ATTEMPT TO- UH NEVERMIND.”_ Nile put a hand to her bandaged head. Papyrus stoked her head sweetly.

The group was awkwardly silent for a minute. Grillby tried to change the subject.

 

“…Well… we have a bit of time before the party at 8:00PM…We hope to get some trick-or-treaters…the neighborhood association says they will come by between 6-8 if you leave your porch light on…”

 

“some what?”

 

“THE HUMAN CHILDREN AND HOPEFULLY SOME MONSTER CHILDREN WILL BE COMING BY- AND WHEN THEY KNOCK ON THE DOOR YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO GIVE THEM A TREAT OR THEY MIGHT PLAY A TRICK ON YOU.”

 

Sans stared at Papyrus.

 

“IT IS PRETTY SCARY, WE DO NOT WANT TO BE TRICKED, SO WE MADE A BUNCH OF SWEETS TO KEEP THE SWARMS OF HUMANS AT BAY.”

 

Sans eye sockets went wide.

 

“I CAN SEE YOU ARE NERVOUS BROTHER, BUT FEAR NOT-FOR I THE GREAT PAPYRUS SHALL-”

 

Sans shook his skull,

 

“nope, not nervous…just what a beautiful holiday. you knock on a door, get free candy, and get to prank people…this might be my favorite human holiday…better than asgore day…”

 

“WOAH-SANS! DON’T TALK CRAZY- ASGORE DAY IS AMAZING!”

 

“ok, ok, well, maybe, we’ll see is all i’m saying. so, is that why you guys have all the tiny colorful hamburgers in the house?”

 

“…hamburgers?...what…”

 

“SANS! THEY ARE MOST CERTAINLY NOT HAMBURGERS, THEY ARE MACARONS! A FRENCH DELICACY! LOOK!”

 

Papyrus picked up a tiny cookie- a pastel pink sandwich with dark lavender filling and handed it to Sans.

 

Sans took the tiny treat and popped it into his mouth. It seemed to melt-perfect combination of sweet, chewy, and light. Sans smiled.

 

“…I made that one…” Grillby smiled his jack-o-lantern smile.

 

“well, it is the best one!”

 

“WOAH-YOU HAVEN’T TRIED ANYONE ELSE’S! NILE, GRILLBY, AND ME HAD A CONTEST. GRILLBY’S ARE IN THE LIVING ROOM, NILES ARE IN THE KITCHEN, AND MINE ARE THE ONES IN THE DINING ROOM.”

 

“ _MINE ARE YELLOW WITH WHITE FILLING AND ORANGE WITH ORANGE FILLING. THEY ARE PUMPKIN COLORED!”_

“MINE ARE GREEN AND BLOOD RED- PERFECT SPOOKY COLORS FOR HALLOWEEN.”

 

“…Uh… I liked the pink and blue with white fillings look…so they are…uh…ghost themed…since ghosts tend to be blue and pink and white…uh…”

 

Sans nodded, all the themes made perfect sense. Sans tried another of Grillby’s cookies.

 

“man grillbz, this is so perfect.”

 

“…aww, that was my first batch…they are a little messed up, the feet are a bit off…”

 

“nah, they are perfect.”

 

“THAT IS WHERE YOU ARE WRONG BROTHER, WE EACH HAD TROUBLE WITH OUR FIRST BATCH, MINE HAD CRACKS, NILE’S HAD BUBBLES, AND GRILLBY’S HAD BIG FEET! ANYWAY- THE PERFECT MACARON IS CHEWY, HAS A 2:1 RATIO OF COOKIE TO FILLING, HAS NO BLEMISHES, CRACKS, OR LUMPS, HAS FEET THAT EMERGE HALFWAY TO THE TOP OF THE COOKIE SHELL, AND CONTAINS EXACTLY ZERO AIR BUBBLES. AS YOU CAN SEE NILE AND I HAVE CREATED THIS LIST OF THIRTEEN VERY IMPORTANT STEPS, FIRST YOU HAVE TO GET YOUR PEAKS FIRM, THEN YOU NEED THE CON-”

 

Sans was completely ignoring his brother and attempting to grab a third macaron to scarf down. The skeleton then attempted to drop a macaron into Grillby’s head. Grillby turned and stuck a fiery shaped tongue out at Sans.

 

“-AND THAT IS WHY YOU HAVE TO DROP THE MACARONS ON THE COUNTER TO LET THE AIR BUBBLE OUT!”

 

“…so is the cooking your favorite part of Halloween?...”

 

“…I think the dressing up is pretty fun, too…”

 

“..Oh Sans! That reminds me… let me show you your costume!…”

_“OOH, WHILE YOU DO THAT, PY AND I WILL GET THE COOKIES INTO TRICK OR TREAT BAGS!”_

 

Grillby led Sans up the stairs.

 

************************************

 

Grillby put his costume on. Sans almost died.

 

“uhm, grillby. i. absolutely love the pun. oh my asgore. you are a fire man. a fire-man fireman. marry me grillbz. but-are you sure that is a scary costume? you know firefighters rescue people right?”

 

“…Sans… firemen may not be scary to you, but they are quite terrifying to me…their awful face coverings…the stomping boots… and the hose!... besides I think I embellished it appropriately…”

 

Grillby was wearing what looked like a firefighter costume-well most of a firefighter costume. It had the coat down right, which Grillby had covered in soot, and the boots and the hat, but Sans was pretty sure human firemen did not go shirtless and wear such….tight pants. Still, if Grillby liked it Sans was not about to complain.

 

“did the costume come with the hose covered in ashes? Also do you buy the shirt separately?”

 

“…No I added that!...and I guess human firemen don’t wear them….I mean I think that is why they wear the suspenders….look…I mean when I searched fireman costume online they all looked like this….but I don’t mind…and I look pretty sexy…”

 

Sans smiled.

 

“heh, heh, i cannot argue with that. and it is really cute-i mean scary. i think we have a shot at winning the contest. so, you, uh. got me a costume, too?”

 

“…Sans it is even better than mine!...”

 

Sans was not looking forward to rocking a shirtless fireman costume, and he rather nervously opened the bag that Grillby handed him.

 

“…Papyrus helped me pick it out…we had to use the children’s section due to the sizing, but Papyrus says that this is actually pretty scary…um…and that you would like it”

 

He opened up the bag to find a small fuzzy black and white spotted onesie with a hood with black puppy ears on it.

 

“…It is for a Dalmatian!... A type of fierce dog that firefighters have with them on the surface to help fight fires… They are… well maybe less scary…but they fit with the theme…uh there is also a hat and a collar, but you do not have to wear the accessories…is it…ok?...”

 

“well, i actually think dogs are a bit more frightening anyway, so its great. i mean, i love doggo and the gang, but they sure do like to chew on your bones. i will admit, i was not 100% sure we would win before, but this is much more frightening!”

 

Sans slipped into his boxers and undershirt before a blushing Grillby could turn around properly.

 

Sans hopped into the costume and zipped it up-

 

“oh my bones and joints, grillbz, this is the comfiest thing i have ever worn.”

 

Sans petted his own head. So soft, so plush, and- were the ears padded? He put his head on the desk… yes.

 

“grillbz, you realize you basically got me a costume that has a built in blanket and pillow.”

 

“...Oh…haha…your gonna fall asleep on me, then?... but you are so cute looking!...look, you even have a tail!...”

 

Sans waggled his tail at Grillby and the two hugged.

 

“…Sans…this is so comfortable…I might fall asleep on you, too…”

 

Grillby leaned onto the bed holding Sans in his arms, and rested the skeleton’s head on his chest. Sans listened to the roaring fire that was Grillby’s soul, and smiled as he felt his own soul flicker with Grillby’s for a second-and then another flicker-like a pulse. Their souls sparked together to the rhythm of a soul beat. Grillby’s started to let out a little spider web-

 

“…Heh…I…missed you…huh… maybe if my soul is gonna be like this I should wear a shirt of some sort, can I borrow one?”

 

“sure, grillby, but just stay another minute first?” Sans nuzzled more into Grillby’s warm chest.

 

“…Heh…just a minute…I…want to do it…but…”

 

“but maybe not dressed like a firefighter and fido?”

 

“…well, honestly yes! It is your first time! Um, and I think we should use soul protection…just in case…”

 

Sans smiled, his own soul sent out a little thread, it waved out close to Grillby’s and Grillby shivered for a second-it was close. The pair closed their eyes and let it go.

 

Sans eventually found a baggy shirt (without ketchup stains!) that covered Grillby’s torso and gave him arm room. It wasn’t exactly baggy on Grillby-in fact if anything it was a little tight- but Grillby had some control of his form, so it was not problem.

 

*********

 

The pair headed downstairs.

 

_“OH WOW, WHAT AN ADORABLE COSTUME! SANS THAT IS GREAT!”_

“WOW! GREAT JOB YOU TOO! YOU WILL DEFINITELY WIN CUTEST COUPLE!”

 

“…Thanks Papyrus… but we are of course going for scariest!…”

 

“RIGHT! RIGHT! WELL, NOW WE MUST WAIT VIGILANTLY FOR OUR FIRST TRICK OR TREAT-ER. IT IS EXACTLY SIX O’CLOCK, SO AT ANY SECOND THEY COULD-”

 

DING DONG.

 

The doorbell rang, and before Sans could shortcut to the door, Papyrus leapt to it with a macaron bag in hand.

 

Frisk and Toriel were at the door, along with Monster Kid, Mr Slime, and the slime kids.

 

The usually quiet Frisk all but shouted,

 

“Trick or Treat!”

 

“Oh, hello Papyrus Dear! Please excuse me, as I have never done trick-or-treating before-it seems like a newer human custom- but it is such a darling tradition, and Frisk worked so hard on their costume!”

 

Toriel beamed at Frisk, who while they may have designed and sewn some of the costume, definitely had help from the Queen.

 

Frisk was adorned in a little cow/goat monster costume, complete with little horns, and a purple smock. Papyrus had never asked if the smock was a traditional goat monster thing, or if it was a royal family thing. Monster kid was dressed as a human, with one of those nose-glasses mustache combos, and the slime kids were dressed as a snowball and a cupcake, which were pretty impressive transformations.

 

“well, moo-oove over paps, let me give these kids some candy!”

 

Sans, Nile, Papyrus, and Grillby each handed out a bag of macarons to the kids and Toriel and Mr. Slime.

 

“Oh, I think you just hand the sweets to the children!”

 

“…Well… we can make an exception…”

 

After Toriel sampled a macaron, it looked like she would be willing to make an exception.

 

“These are delectable! Grillby, you should serve these at your resturaunt!”

 

After Frisk, Monster Kid, and the slime children left things were quiet for about twenty seconds.

 

A group of human kids came by. One was dressed as a mummy with little toilet paper bandages and a king-tut mask.

 

 _“OH MY GOODNESS, HOW ADORABLE!”_ Nile was so happy.

 

“Wow, you are a real mummy!!! How freaky!”

 

“CHRISTOPHER MICHAEL! Be polite to the neighbors!”

 

“no mom, it means cool! You are cool lady! And your skeleton husband and kid are cool too!”

 

Nile beamed.

 

“HUSBAND?”

 

“kid? Listen here bucko-i am not that short-”

 

Papyrus elbowed Sans in the ribs while mouthing ‘human-monster relations.’

 

Nile totally slipped the kid an extra bag of treats.

 

A few more kids came by- there were witches, scarecrows, a devil, a few cats, and of course a few skeletons. Most of the skeletons wore little suits that looked like bones, and a few wore face paint. It was pretty clever. Nile stopped Papyrus from giving the kids five bags each.

 

Grillby scanned the neighborhood-no fire costumes yet… but the pumkin farmer was right, almost every house had a jack-o-lantern. He would have to make a few, too.

 

Groups and groups of kids came, until there was only half an hour to go.

 

After a ten-minute lull, a familiar family came by.

 

Alphys came by with the three little monsterlings in a stroller, all dressed as little blue and grey monsters with pointy ears and white bellies.

 

“H-hello! We wanted to sa-save the best for last!”

 

_“HELLO!”_

“HELLO ALPHYS! IS UNDYNE SETTING UP THE PARTY?”

 

“Yes, Undyne is setting up, but I am taking lots of pictures so she can feel like she was here! Say cheese kids!”

 

“Cha!”

 

“EESE”

 

“chiss”

 

Alphys snapped a picture with the monsterlings’ stroller in front of the house.

 

“uh so are they some sort of cat monsters?”

 

Alphys turned to Sans shocked,

 

“S-Sans, you should remember that movie I showed you with totoro! And I dressed as the human-see that hat and dress! I-I mean I guess it is about a cat monster that befriends a h-h-human. Sw-sweet dog costume!”

 

Sans had thought it was weird that Alphys was wearing a summer hat in winter, but he supposed Alphys was not always the most fashion forward.

 

“heh thanks! Grillbz picked it out for me, and how could i forget the movie about the laz sleeping cat monster?”

 

Sans imitated totoro by lying on the ground. Grillb half heartedly tried to pull him up, but the skeleton just took the opportunity to hug Grillby’s foot.

 

“HOW HAS YOUR HALLOWEEEN TRICK OR TREATING ADVENTURE GONE? ANY CRAZY TRICKS?”

 

“W-well one house gave us little toy spiders made of plastic that were a bit unsettling. And another house tried to give us silly-string.”

 

“SILLY STRING? WHAT COULD BE HILARIOUS ABOUT A COMMON SEWING MATERI-AUGGHHH”

 

Alphys sprayed Papyrus with the gooey webbing.

 

Everyone looked surprised for a second, then Sans started chuckling. Then the tide of laughter washed over the group.

 

‘Heh-heh, here Papyrus it comes right off! Especially off of hard stuff like bone!”

 

Alphys waddled over and hopped up to help get the string off of Papyrus’ head.

 

“IT WAS A PRETTY GOOD PRANK! CAN I TRY IT?”

 

Papyrus sprayed a bit of the silly string into the air.

 

“NYEH HEH HEH, THIS IS FUN.”

 

_“OOH LET ME SEE IT!”_

Papyrus playfully sprayed some silly string on Nile’s arm before the mummy took the can.

 

_“ALLRIGHT GRILLBY! WHOSE MACARONS ARE THE BEST?”_

Nile attempted to menacingly hold the can to Grillby.

“…Nope! Mine are Still the best…Hahaha”

 

Nile got Grillby good-

 

“…Oh Asgore…stop that stuff tastes horrible…” The silly string turned into ashy worms for a second before being swallowed into Grillby’s head.

 

Nile laughed and tossed the can,

 

_“SORRY GRILLBY, HERE YOU GO! YOU CAN GET REVENGE.”_

Grillby made to look like he was going to get Nile, but immediately turned to get Sans with the stuff, but Sans-anticipating the move- short-cutted away twice, the second time in front of his brother, so Papyrus got hit again.

 

Then the can was empty.

 

All the monsters were roaring with laughter.

 

“S-See you at the party!”

 

Two more families of monsterlings and human children came by. Since there were plenty to spare, each got three bags each. Finally, as the last tiny human tripped over the steps with their candy prise, Papyrus turned the porch light off-it was time for the party!

 

***


	43. Younger older brother

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pro tip: never tell a bartender to surprise you. The monsters head out for a fun Halloween party when an unexpected guest comes by.

Sans entered the bar- and was immediately swarmed by the former Snowden Dog Patrol K-9 unit.

 

“A New Dog…Bark!” Dogamy, off from patrol had stopped by for the party with Dogaressa. He had a horn on the middle of his head. A dog unicorn. Dogicorns were a pretty realistic and normal choice.

 

“Ooh hello new dog!” Dogaressa started sniffing Sans. Dogaressa also had a fake horn on and flippers, so Sans was happy that she didn’t sniff too close. He figured she was a dog-narwhal, which was a much more fantastic idea, Dogaressa had always been more creative.

 

The pups, Doggmatt, Doggeddy, Doggamber, and Spot were sharing a table and each took a turn sniffing Sans. They didn’t have full costumes, just little cat ears on.

 

 

“Woof!” Lesser Dog perked up an ear. The Dog had dressed up as a jedi knight, with a glowing light saber and immediately jumped on Sans for a sniff.

 

“Hey pup, want a drink, woof?” Doggo was classy as usual, wearing a tight spandex hot dog costume.

 

“Bark, Bark!” Greater Dog was even in, dressed in a costume that looked like a giant dog treat. I had a few bite marks on it, but Greater Dog seemed to be enjoying the attention.

 

“hey doggo, it’s just me in a costume, but i’ll take you up on the drink.” Sans smiled for Doggo and summoned a bone.

 

“SANS That is you? Woof! Oh monster! I need to get my nose checked!” Doggo, hi-fived Sans.

 

“your costume is pretty cool.”

 

“BARK!” Lesser Dog looked a bit surprised.

 

“Wow! YES, Dogs are the best! Good costume. Is that bone for me?” Dogaressa looked excited.

 

“Best costume of the night, Bark!” Dogamy looked happy.

 

“aww thanks guys. sure, you can all have a bone attack. i hope you vote for us for scariest couple”

 

Having secured the coveted Dog voting block, Sans and Grillby headed to the bar. Grillby decided to help serve drinks for a bit, and Sans helped out waiting tables. Grillby’s costume seemed really popular with the humans, most laughed, an some (to San’s annoyance) told him he looked ‘hot’. Grillby good-naturedly smiled and laughed along. Sans had a pretty high pun tolerance but after the eighth college girl made the joke Sans groaned and hit his head on the bar rather loudly.

 

“grillby. if i ever make that pun again…just put a sock in my mouth.”

 

“…Sans…you will make that pun again…probably tomorrow…”

 

“no seriously, never again. asgore you must hate those jokes. ”

 

“…Well….sometimes yes…yours have grow on me…so…I am not putting a sock in your mouth…at least let it be a handkerchief…”

 

“don’t you love me?”

 

“…No sock…maybe I will just boop your nose…”

 

Grillby booped Sans’ nose canal and took a break from tending bar to nuzzle into him.

 

“i love you grillbz.”

 

“…I love you Sans…”

 

“Hey, what’s a guy gotta do to get a drink around here!”

 

Grillby did not have visible eyes, but Sans guessed he might be rolling them.

 

Dom he human was serving drinks as fast as he could, but the influx of customers was currently a bit overwhelming.

 

 

“…Sans…why don’t you see if your brother is around…I’ll serve a few more rounds…and then I’ll let Dom on his own…”

 

 

*********

 

The humans were surprisingly good at their costume game- there were vampires, a few really good zombies, and one lady with snake heads could have been mistaken for an actual monster.   Plenty of monsters dressed up as humans too, with a few good costumes. One slime monster in particular had used a mixture of saran-wrap tape and a wig to do a pretty good job-although he seemed to be leaking a bit and scaring off actual humans.

 

Zostra and Apple were in, but not with Nile. Zostra (dressed as a fortune teller) was chatting with a human dressed as a zombie, and Apple (dressed as a red apple) was hitting it off with Doggo.

 

_“Wow! Food costumes are awesome right! You are a hot-dog! Cute!”_

“And I love that you are an apple, Apple! Woof!”  

 

Undyne of course, was running around telling everybody the time of the costume contest vote- and getting the karaoke bar filled. She was dressed as some sort of anime character with huge yellow hair and an orange jumpsuit.  

 

Alphys eventually came in for a half hour with the monsterlings. They played a bit with the puppies before Alphys left for a bit to take them home and tuck them into bed. Undyne gave Alphys a kiss before sending them off.

 

Aside from Undyne, Sans recognized Red and Violet in the crowd. Red and Violet had gone pretty minimal: Violet had a mask shaped like a bird on and Red had a mask shaped like a human clown. It was pretty cute.

 

Also in the crowd were Drunk Bunny and Ugly. Bunny was wearing what looked like a cheerleader outfit with pom-poms and ugly had a football helmet on. Sans figured he would go say hi, but noticed that the two seemed to be arguing.

 

“Well Caspy, I just think a girl needs more freedom.”

 

“Look-Bun, It’s not that I don’t trust you, but-”

 

Sans did not want to go near that argument with a ten-foot pole.

 

Sans decided to see if Paps was in yet, it should not be too hard. Ok, there he was, a big six-foot tall bony looking guy with a phantom of the opera mask on standing awkwardly next to the jukebox attempting to dance to the music alone. Papyrus had done a good job to cover his arms and face, but he way the clothes fit it was obviously someone without skin. Papyrus loved musical theatre. Nile was probably the heroine Christine. Sans had always liked that musical… good taste, bro.

 

“hey bro, i found you, now you owe me drink.”

 

The masked figure turned around as Sans spoke.

 

“ **Excuse me**?”

 

“uh…paps?”

 

 **“I am not your father, sorry, are you lost?”** The monster took off his mask, he was a large mummy with brown bandages, a square head, and dark empty eyes.

“uh, sorry, i’m not a kid, i just mistook you for someone else, sorry man, not a lot of necrotics on the surface, ya know?”

 

“ **Oh, it is ok! And you are right!” It is really nice to meet another! Monsters are spreading out now that the surface is here.”** The mummy man lowered his mask for a second.

“yeah! honestly after living in snowdin so long, my bro and i didn’t meet any before.”

 

**“Snowdin! Zhurg, no wonder, it is so cold there your bones would rattle off. Ha Ha! You’ must have been bonely!”**

“heh heh. yeah! no bones about it!”

 

**HAHAHAHAHA**

heheheheheh

 

**“So you thought I was your old man?”**

“no, no, my brother paps.”

 

**“Weird name for a skeleton!”**

“yeah, i guess so. i mean it is short for papyrus, it’s cause our dad was part mummy”

 

**“Oh wow! Small world. I wonder if we are related? HAHAHA! Well as long as he isn’t the skeleton that ran off with my sister.”**

Sans’ soul sunk. Nile had two brothers, didn’t she?

 

“uh…what’s the guys name?”

 

**“Horus! The f****** pile of bones has her in a spell, I think. My mother says he’s using foul evil magic, too! My poor sister is probably stuck in a spell, why else would she run away from home? If I see his smirking skull, I am not gonna let him get away. You don’t know any Horus, do you-eh-you aren’t Horus?”**

 

Sans shook his head. He was 99% sure the guy was actually looking for Papyrus though.

 

“name’s sans-and you don’t have to worry about me-i’m dating the bartender here.”

 

**“Name’s Kuk. Wait- you are dating the human?”**

 

“no, the fire elemental.”

 

**“Good good, I mean elementals are pretty hot, and you were in Snowdin, limited pool, huh. I understand. But if you met a nice zombie girl-let me tell you-they really know how to rattle your bones!”**

Kuk attempted to posture and look cool. Sans could tell he had never uh, met, a zombie girl.

 

“uh, hehheh.” Sans eye glowed a bit blue. He couldn’t help it, awkward conversation did that to a necrotic. Kuk noticed, too, and tried to save face.

 

“ **Ok, Ok, I can tell you like the bar-boy. And I guess a shortie like you has to settle a bit. But look, if you see my sister Anuket-my poor mother is real worked up-she’s been crying every night without her.”**

Sans did a double take. Anuket? How many mummy girls were getting their hearts stolen by skeletons lately? Although…what if Nile was her middle name or a nickname-Sans could not be too careful. Everything he had heard about Nile’s family made his magical blood boil. No, he was 75% sure this guy was still looking for Paps. Either way, Sans wanted to get away form this guy, he was kind of an ass.

 

“no problem kuk!”

 

Sans started to turn to find someone else to talk to when he saw another wave of monsters and humans enter the bar.

 

A rather tall monster in a mask and wig charged up to the karaoke bar and immediately started talking with Undyne with a slightly shorter masked and wigged monster behind.

 

Sans was pretty sure it was Paps and Nile, and if so he had to keep this walking pile of maggots away from the pair. Sans sighed and resolved to buy the gallon of milk, Sans looked at Paps with his Judgment.

 

**Innocent. No evil intent. Would not hurt a fly u-**

Yeah-Yeah, would not hurt a fly, that was Paps. Sometimes Sans had wished that Papyrus would hurt a fly. All those alternate timelines made Sans jump whenever his brother so much as cracked his neck.

Paps was wearing a long wavy dirty blond wig that covered most of his face the way he had it angled. The hair looked real, too. He had on tight ripped jeans, a black jacket and shirt. It honestly looked like something Grillby would like. The outfit included black leather gloves and Sunglasses tucked into a pocket. Additionally Papyrus wore a strange black mask that covered his face. It was pretty clever, and honestly, the clothes disguised him pretty well.

 

Nile also had a super big and bold wig. It was blonde frizzy and curly and the mess of hair went halfway down her back. To complete the look she had a black lacy dress with semi-sheer sleeves going to her fingers. It looked like Papyrus and Nile had tried to cover the bits of bone and bandage up where they would have showed with something. The really looked human-although Papyrus’ proportions were a bit large.

 

The disguise might work from a distance, but Sans had no idea how good Kuk was at recognizing his sister.

 

“so, uh, kuk, why don’t we ask my buddy grillby if he’s seen this guy, i mean he works at the bar, so uh he might have seen him. I’ll have em’ make you a free drink.”

 

**“Oh hey, your not a bad monster sans.”**

Sans walked up to the bar with Kuk. Grillby was currently handing out what looked like six or seven drinks to the crowd that had just come in.

 

“hey, grillbz! this is my new friend kuk!”

 

“…Nice to meet you Kuk…I would like to talk but I am rather…”

 

“he is looking for his sister- a mummy, and some skeleton that took her away from home. wants to give him a bad time if you catch my drift. i thought that we could get him a drink while he looks and see if you’ve met a skeleton named horus? Or a mummy named anuket.”

 

Grillby went from looking concerned to looking confused. His flames went from sweeping low and back to swirling over his head. Thankfully, Kuk did not seem to notice.  

 

“…Oh…I don’t know any skeletons by that name…or any mummies named Anuket…but I will keep my eyes out…” It was a true statement.

 

 **“Sure, but are you sure you have eyes?”** Kuk tried laughing.

Grillby’s flames spiked up and down in annoyance, it was at least better than a 'you are hot' joke, though.

 

“…Haha… that is a really common misconception about elementals…we can see magically…now…why I do not have visible eyes…my magical ones need glasses…it is actually pretty interesting...but I mean…you don’t exactly have eyes either…”

 

**“Uh, I can’t quite make out your accent, um could I get a drink, hon?”**

 

Grillby looked like he was going to roast kuk alive. Still maybe if he just gave him a drink it would shut him up. Slowly and loudly Grillby simmered,

 

“…what do you want…”

 

**“Surprise me!”**

Grillby was definitely rolling his magical eyes this time. 

 

“…You look like you can handle something strong!...”

 

That was a lie, Kuk looked like he had never been in a bar before.

 

Grillby handed Kuk a particularily devious looking drink. It filled a huge glass flagon that Grillby usually reserved for group chocolate banana super-sundaes. Holy cow, was Grillby trying to get him plastered?

 

**“Your boyfriend’s got good eyes after all Sans! I just want something to take off the edge, I mean-I am sure I can handle a skeleton, but uh, well…”**

Kuk was shaking a bit. Was he nervous about fighting Papyrus. Maybe, he did not really want to fight?

 

"So, uh, you sure your sister just didn’t leave with this guy cause she liked him?”

 

Kuk swiveled in the bar-stool.

 

**“WHAT! No way. I know Anuket! She uh, she wouldn’t go for some guy that uses magic. She works so hard not to use her own! I mean, magic is a bit alluring, and I mean, I used to use it myself. But now that my father is sick…Anyway Anuket just would not go for that type of monster. She is clearly under a spell!”**

Sans had had enough.

 

“uh, is magic really that bad?” Sans summoned a small bone.

 

Kuk sighed.

 

**“Look, maybe it’s not, but I am not talking about bone attacks- this guy-my mother said he used some sort of blue force magic. I mean a monster that can do that-I mean he could be controlling her with that for all I know!”**

Kuk drank the rest of the beer and stared angrily into the empty glass, his eyes glowing red.

 

Sans eyes were glowing blue, too. Best to disengage.

“hey, grillbz! do you need help with dishes or anything in the back?”

 

“…Oh!...not much…but maybe you can help with one thing… let me show you…”

 

Sans stole a look at the karaoke bar as he and Grillby went into the kitchen. Nile and Papyrus were in line. Those two had a pretty distinct voice…shit.

 

“grillbz, i am pretty sure that guy wants to grind paps into dust.”

 

“…Yes…he has the name wrong though?...”

 

“yeah, but i bet if he saw paps with nile the name wouldn’t exactly matter. Also, how much alcohol did you give him?”

 

Grillby smiled mischievously, his flames flickering deep red for a second.

"...Well..none. it was on the House, so I just gave him a fake one...Erdinger Weissbier Alkoholfrei...German alcohol free beer..."

"ah, ok i was worried."

“…Look…I do not want him to get inebriated…he is clearly already looking for a fight… It looks like a lot and it tastes pretty good…I thought about just giving him something weak that could only get a lightweight drunk…but…from my experience most necrotics are lightweights…”

 

“hey!”

 

“…Sans…you might have a higher tolerance than Papyrus…but that is like saying you are stronger than a moldsmall…”

 

“heh, heh alright, true point. but, uh i saw paps and nile, they are going to do karaoke. we need a distraction.”

 

“…Ok…I have one…I am going to let Dogamy know…also we are going to need to call Red and Doggo over...”

 

****

Sans and Grillby snuck around the bar getting the others to help out. Sans confirmed with Apple that this was Nile’s brother.

 

“so, apple, zostra, is nile’s brother’s name kuk? if so he wants to grind papyrus into ash.”

 

Zostra and Apple looked confused and concerned.

 

_“Kuk? Not Khepri?”_

“no, kuk.”

 

Apple and Zostra looked surprised.

 

_“Kuk is a big softie. He is a bit, uh, of an idiot, but I don’t think he would hurt Py.”_

“Kuk….issss…uhhhhhh…annoying… but harmless…if it was Khephiiii….I would be concerned…”

 

“well, he thinks nile is in some sort of spell since papyrus uses magic.”

 

_“uh, yeah he is a bit gullible like that. Zostra, he likes you, let’s see if we can find him and get him to shut up.”_

“ughhhh…fine…”

 

***********

As Apple and Zostra started sifting through the crowd Papyrus and Nile stepped on stage-it was finally their turn to sing.

 

The pair had been practicing all week. Not having Sans in the house had meant that they could rehearse secretly.

 

Still- Papyrus knew he had a rather… recognizable… voice-but he had an ace up his sleeve. Literally. He tucked a little red vial into his sleeve.

 

“We got this Nile”

 

Nile turned to Papyrus and smiled.

Undyne passed them the microphone and gave them a wink,

 

“OK next up are Tom and Stevie with the classic rock duet ‘stop draggin my heart around!’ Knock em’ dead!”

 

***

Red and Doggo held their breath and fluffed their feathers respectively. Red had a great big pile of dishes in his hand and was waiting by the stage for Doggo’s cue. Grillby had a beverage that was contained in a beer bottle and Sans was at the table with Ugly and Bunny who were looking to share a table with anyone but themselves. Dogamy was near the stage.

 

The enemy mummy had wandered over to the karaoke bar and was starting to stare at the singers. For now it looked like he was just listening to the music.

The music started and Nile stepped up to the microphone,

 

**~Baby you come knockin’ on my front door-same ol’ line you used to use before~**

Doggo looked at Red as Nile continued.

 

“Red-is this really them?”

 

The mummy man also looked confused.

 

***So you had a little trouble in town. Now you’re keeping some demons down stop dragging my-stop dragging my-stop dragging my-***

“Uh, look pup, I uh, maybe we just don’t know Nile as well as we know Paps? Let’s just wait for his voice.”

 

Papyrus took the microphone,

 

***I thought you really wanted to tell me goodbye. I know you really want to be your own girl***

Sans stared. That was not Papyrus’ voice. But it was his brother! Sans looked at the others, why weren’t they starting the plan?

 

Papyrus and Nile continued to sing while half the bar stood there dumbfounded and the other half cheered-the singing was phenomenal-just like Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks. The two both took the microphone together for the finale. The two even had a bit of a routine where they walked around each other and played like they were quarreling.

Together they sang the last bit,

***Maybe you can never really look me in the eye- Yeah you buckle with the weight of the words- stop dragging my-stop dragging my-stop dragging my heart around!***

Sans looked more carefully at the pair. They were glowing with pride as the crowd clapped. They were also glowing with a little something else. Sans looked in the crowd-yeah the old turtle monster was in, Gerson, looking pleased as a pickled plum.

 

“say gerson, you uh, you uh sell my brother any potions lately?”

 

“None of your business, but uh, you know it is a business! I hear you are dating Grillby-If you want a potion just stop by during business hours.”

 

“i meant a voice changing potion.”

 

“Sans, your voice is lovely!”

 

“no, no did you sell paps a voice changing potion?”

 

Gerson winked at Sans.

 

Ok, so that was that mystery solved. The question remained, was it enough to fool Kuk?

 

“All right! Who wants to sing next! Kara-oke power hour!” Undyne shouted so loudly into the microphone Grillby was sure he’d get a noise complaint.

 

Before Sans could blink Kuk pushed through the crowd and stepped on stage. His once empty eye sockets were burning with a blood red.

 

“Alright big guy what s-” Undyne tried.

 

Kuk lunged towards Papyrus.

 

“CRAP, RED NOW!” Doggo Shouted. Red dropped the stack of glasses. The crowd turned to Red. It would have been a good distraction if Kuk were not already on stage.

 

Grillby downed the ‘beer’ and rushed forward.

 

“bro watch it.”

 

Sans short-cutted in between Papyrus and Kuk just in time for Kuk’s hand to jab him in the face.

 

*******

 

Sans felt his vision go white for a second as the fire in his eye burned out. He blinked and his vision was back. He was on the floor.

 

**“So Horus is it? You think you can waltz my sister off to the surface with you, romeo?”**

Kuk reached into his pocket to pull out a slip of red something.

**_“_** _Kuk, I can date whoever I want what has gotten into you?”_ Nile’s eye sockets were glowing.

**“WHAT has gotten into me? What has gotten into you? Running off to the surface with some magic using low-life!”**

Kuk jabbed his fingers at Papyrus’ head. Papyrus was fast enough though, and Kuk’s hand kissed the air.

 

**“Fucking slippery skeleton! You-You are no match for me.”**

Papyrus dodged a few more weird shots and then blocked one. Kuk had been expecting someone more of Sans size. The mummy huffed a bit. He was tired.

 

“Look, brother of Nile, I do not wish to hurt you, just calm down!”

 

Kuk was still mad, though. He clenched his fist and swung it forward with all his effort. He lost balance and toppled forward into Papyrus, managing to violently hit Papyrus’ arm. The guy wasn’t skilled, but he was still a big Mummy. There was a small cracking sound and a piece of paper fluttered to the floor.

 

Papyrus pushed Kuk back, but the guy winced a bit. Sans noticed his HP had taken a hit.

 

That was it.

 

“get away from my brother!”

 

Sans tried to lift Kuk with gravity magic, but found he was unable. As Kuk turned to him, Sans tried to summon a bone.

 

**“Heh, what’s wrong, can’t hit me with a bone attack? Hehheh.”**

Kuk walked toward Sans.

“You do not know your own strength, get AWAY FROM MY BROTHER!” Papyrus’ eye glowed.

 

_“Kuk, his HP is too low, you cannot hit him!”_

 

Sans tried to shortcut back, but he could not. Kuk’s fist was going to blast his shoddy HP into dust.

 

Kuk swung at Sans.

 

_“Kuk! Listen! HIS HP IS LOW”_

“Kuk….youu…idiiiott…back off…” Zostra shouted from the crowd.

Kuk’s eye stopped glowing, but his fist was still going to hit Sans.

 

**Ooph!**

 

Three things happened at once.

 

One, Papyrus pushed Kuk into the ground so hard with gravity magic that the mummy’s skull almost slammed into the ground. The force of the blow winded him, as his chest hit the ground. Papyrus stopped it before the skull made contact-with half an inch to spare- a little sloppy for Papyrus, but Sans supposed he wasn’t taking his usual TLC to avoid harming a monster.

 

Two, Grillby got onto stage- his arms glowing white and his hair blue-the remains of a molten plastic fireman hat and coat melted into his burning lava mouth and shoulders. Grillby no longer resembled a man, but a walking inferno.

 

“….oOoooOUT of my baRrrroOOo…oOOthis is a family establishmentoOo…”

 

Kuk looked up from the ground, he understood the words that time.

 

Three, Dogamy and Dogaressa grabbed Kuk and escorted him outside. Nile and Papyrus ran after. Zostra and Apple followed slowly. Grillby lowered his flames to human form but remained blue-white.

 

“…Sans…. Are you ok?...”

 

“yeah, yeah, let’s make sure paps is though.”

 

The whole bar was looking at the stage.

 

“…Well…fight’s over…sorry about that ladies and gentlemonsters…this is a family establishment and we have an officer taking care of things…Please continue to have fun… Signature martinis will be $5.15 for the next hour… and family sundaes are half off...”

 

Grillby was not entirely sure what the signature martini was today, but he hoped it was not too expensive.

 

The crowd murmured and rushed the bar. Grillby would thank Dom and Red later.

 

Grillby looked pleadingly at Undyne.

 

“Last chance to cast your vote for the costume contest! Don’t forget, winners get free pub t-shirts!”

 

 ********************************

Sans tugged on Grillby’s sleeve and the two went outside. Papyrus and Nile’s voice had returned to normal. Nile was shouting angrily at her brother.

 

_“KUK! WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?”_

**“Mom said you were under a spell, so I brought spell tags.”**

_“DO I LOOK LIKE I AM UNDER A SPELL?”_

**_“Uhhh…well. Maybe?”_ **

Nile ripped a piece of paper out of Kuk’s hand and stuck it on herself. Her eyes went from glowing green with anger to colorless. Sans was not sure which was scarier.

 

_“I STILL WANT TO DATE PAPYRUS. I LEFT HOME BECAUSE MOTHER ATTACKED ME. I AM NOT UNDER A SPELL, OH IDIOT BROTHER OF MINE.”_

**“Uh…well I can see that now. Uh, sorry. I, uh, messed up pretty big this time.”**

_“YOU SHOULD HAVE JUST ASKED ME!”_

****

“You assaulted a stranger in public!” Dogaressa looked like she was going to tear the mummy to ribbons.

 

**“It…it got out of hand."**

“Out of hand Kuuuuk…? I thought ….youuuuu…. were better than your brooother….” Zostra shook her head and any remaining red magic drained from Kuk’s face.

Apple shook her head.

 

 _“weak slippery skeleton? Seriously! Necrotics have to stick together Kuk! Do you hear yourself?”_ Apple magically spat in his direction.

**“I…I…”**

 

“Hitting a fellow monster in public is bad enough, but you almost got Sans! Woof!” Dogamy looked serious now.

 

“I UNDERSTAND WHY YOU TRIED TO HIT ME, BUT THERE WAS NO CAUSE FOR HITTING SANS!”

 

 

**“Look, I am sorry for grazing your arm Papyrus, and I really shouldn’t have tried to hit Sans, but I mean what’s the big deal, it would have just knocked the little guy out is all.”**

“uh, hey there buddy. Next time you start a fight with someone do a favor and check their hp.”

 

Kuk checked Sans HP.

 

 **“Wait, no. I did not mean, too. I swear. I am Sorry- I-Zhurg- are you ok, I did not know you were falling.”** Kuk sat down, really embarrassed.

“no, i am not falling. it’s not a problem but i need to use my magic to get out of those sorts of situations. How’d you block it?”

 

**“Uh, I used this spell tag. Blocks your magic. Uh, here,”**

Kuk reached his hand to Sans and Grillby flared up.

 

**“Ok, Ok, Just pull the red piece of paper off his head!”**

 

“…Uh…I am a bit bad with that color…uh…ok…I see…”

 

**“Do not burn it-”**

 

Grillby snatched the little piece of paper off of Sans head, and burned it to a honey crisp in his hand.

 

“…Owww…”

 

Grillby’s hand went out and condensed to blackened magma. After a few seconds it re-ignited.

 

**“Sorry, you are made of magic, so uh, try not to burn them. Uh, I am sorry…really sorry. but, uh maybe we can start over?”**

“Look, here, woof. You may be sorry, but here on the surface the humans have pretty strict laws about hitting others and attempted assault. I am a bit of a traditionalist, for monsters fights are more ingrained in our society, but you did not even try to use the GUI. I am going to lock you up for the night. You are being detained for misdemeanor of simple assault and misdemeanor of simple battery. Bail is probably going to be $500.00. If Papyrus wishes to pursue charges you can be looking at jail for a year and a fine of up to $2000.00 for each count. Do you understand the severity of the situation, BARK?”

 

**“Hu-hu-human prison!”**

The dungeons at the palace were known to be awful. Sans was not entirely sure the flowers and comfy pillows the prisoners got were enough to make up for the wet stonewalls and wailing screams of the imprisoned. And if that was monster prison, Sans shuddered at the idea of a human prison.

 

“Papyrus, woof. You did punch him, but it was clearly in self-defense. But you have to be careful on the surface. And Sans, you need to watch it, as well. Also, Grillby, wait a moment, I saw that huge drink you gave him.”

 

Dogaressa brought out a Breathalyzer and made Kuk walk a line.

 

“No alcohol, woof?”

 

“…Dogamy….I gave him a non…alcoholic beverage…”

 

“Ah, sorry Grillby, I know you are careful, woof! But if he were inebriated, I might have a word.”

 

Dang, no one could escape the long paw of the law.

 

**“I-I am sorry.”**

*************************************************


	44. Halloween part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone has to bail Kuk out of jail.

As Kuk was handcuffed and led into the police car, with its red and blue lights no monster really felt good.

 

_“UM, IS HE GOING TO BE OK? I AM UPSET WITH HIM, BUT I DO NOT WANT THEM TO TORTURE HIM.”_

Dogaressa turned to Nile,

 

“No it is not that bad, woof. Dogamy will make sure he gets to see the judge tomorrow morning. Humans prisons are not legally supposed to be like that. And besides Dogamy will be sure to prevent anything like that, he is a good dog. He will be in a holding cell, probably with a few other humans who decided the holiday was a good excuse to act crazy.”

 

“HOW LONG WILL HE BE IN JAIL FOR?”

 

“Well hopefully he will be in and out with bail, and then after the court date he will get a fine and some community service, unless you press charges. Right now they are probably formally charging him, fingerprinting him, and holding his belongings for the night.”

 

 _“HOLDING HIS STUFF? WILL THE SPELL TAGS CAUSE MORE HARM?”_ Nile was pretty sure that Kuk still had a few up his sleeve.

“fingerprinting?”

“To prevent him from using any weapons if he had any. Humans are pretty non-magical, if one of them destroys them it would not be a problem. And I am sure they will do the best they can with the prints- although the photo would be more useful. ”

 

Dogaressa reassured Nile,

 

“Anyway, Nile and Papyrus, if you are going to press charges let me know. If not, that is fine, Bark! I am going to bring the puppies home once Dogamy gets back with the car. Let’s try to enjoy the rest of your night. Woof!”

 

 

****

 

Back at the bar, Undyne was lightening the mood by handing out t-shirts with chibi Grillby’s face and the bar name on them to costume contest winners. It looked like they had missed a few of the preliminary winners-best group theme of three or more, most realistic, funniest, best kids costume (the puppies had apparently won!), punny-est, sexiest…

 

Doggo seemed a bit sour that he had not won that last category and was puppy dog pouting into a lager, white froth covering his nose.

 

Sans, Papyrus, Grillby, Zostra, Dogaressa, and Apple snuck back into the bar. Zostra and Apple comforted Nile a bit, as she seemed to be on the verge of tears-her eye sockets glowing green.

 

“NILE, WE CAN GO HOME IF YOU NEED A MOMENT,” Papyrus whispered and held Nile.

 

 _“NO, I DO NOT WANT TO RUIN EVERYONE’S GOOD TIME, EVEN MORE,”_ Nile exclaimed. Green glowing tears started to well up in her eye sockets.

 

“Niiiile…it is not yoooouur fault your brothhher is a doofussss. Do not let hiiim make you feel bad.” Zostra crooned and pet Nile, her hand detaching for a second as she stroked Nile’s head.

 

_“OH ZOE. I KNOW IT IS NOT MY FAULT, BUT NOW EVERONE IN THE BAR THINKS I AM A PROBLEM. I-I DO NOT MEAN TO ALWAYS CAUSE TROUBLE.”_

Zostra got her hand unstuck and Apple took over.

_“No Nile, honey, it is fine.”_ Apple put a tiny skeletal hand on Nile’s shoulder

 

_“I JUST FEEL LIKE I RUINED THE WHOLE PARTY. I FEEL SO BAD FOR UNDYNE, AND THE HAPPY MONSTERS AND HUMANS. AND FOR POOR DOGAMY AND DOGARESSA! AND FOR GRILLBY! I DO NOT WANT HIM TO GET MAD AT ME AND PAPS FOR ATTRACTING A FIGHT!”_

“Woof! No Nile, I like you! You are very nice, a good puppy-sitter! Me and Amy just want to help you out, woof!”

 

Nile had been helping watch the puppies on spare weekends. Between the puppies and Unyne and Alphys’ monsterlings Nile was building up a good rep as a monsterling-sitter.

 

Grillby turned to Nile lowering his flames and speaking slowly,

 

“…Nile…It was not your fault….and I own a bar…this is a pretty quiet one…but fights happen at least once every few months either way…”

 

_“YEAH BUT WITH STRANGERS, NOT FRIENDS.”_

“…No…Big Mouth and Ugly got in a fight over who was a better fish once…they broke a chair…I was more upset at them than I am at you…but they are still patrons…”

 

“Yup! I was an idiot!” Ugly chimed in from the table nearby. Big Mouth Growled in agreement.

 

“…You still owe me for the chair…”

 

“Put in on my tab this week!”

 

“…And for jukebox repairs…”

 

“That can go on next weeks tab.”

 

“…And for-”

 

“NILE, NO ONE IN THE BAR HATES YOU! THEY ALL LOVE YOU! HOW COULD THEY NOT WHEN YOU ARE SO NICE?”

 

Papyrus gave Nile a hug so big Sans was pretty sure it would have broken a monster like him in half.

 

“Woof! I loved your tiny cookies, Woof!” Doggo and Lesser Dog had gotten a practice batch of macarons last week.

 

Bunny gave Nile a hug,

 

“Listen hon, every monster here is just happy you are safe!”

 

Red, Violet, Grillby, Sans, Ugly, Dogaressa, LD, Doggo, Apple, Zostra, and of course Papyrus gave Nile the biggest group hug the mummy had ever had. She laughed, and as the smiles surrounded them, the pair relaxed a bit.

 

“…Here…have a Rootbeer float on the house…” Grillby smiled.

 

_“HUH, OH I HAVE NEVER TRIED THIS TYPE OF BEER.”_

“It is not alcoholic… It is made from sassafras root… We couldn’t really make this Underground… unless some fell down…”

 

Grillby had acquired some very odd tasting orange soda from the dump once. He and his elemental friends ended up hurting their mouths on it. The amount of sugar in the soda had made it ok, but the idea to chug it had been stupid. For years they used the rest of the sodas as a dare object.

 

Nile smiled and took a sip. It was delicious. Still she felt guilty watching everyone’s smiling faces.

 

_“HERE PY, TRY IT! IT IS EXCELLENT.”_

Papyrus happily took a sip and then made a very unhappy face. Uh oh.

 

Nile took another sip. Oh scarab beetles. She had turned the sugar in it sour.

 

_“HEH HEH HEH. I THINK I SOURED IT. YOU GUYS HAVE MADE ME FEEL BETTER, BUT MAYBE I JUST NEED TO GO LIE DOWN A BIT.”_

Papyrus nodded,

“OK! HOW ABOUT WE HEAD HOME EARLY, GRILLBY AND SANS DO YOU WANT A RIDE HOME?”

 

“i’ll crash at grillby’s tonight.”

 

Papyrus let Nile lean into him and the pair headed home to recover with some MTT and a blanket. Undyne stopped her announcements to run forward and give them t-shirts for best karaoke before they left.

 

The two smiled for a second as they received the prize and applause.

 

Papyrus started his car, and the two sped home.

 

*************************************************************

 

“Ok! So most original costume goes to Janet D! A human who dressed up as a very accurate paper monster! So Cool! WOOOOHOOO!”

 

Janet D, who had worn a paper plate mask and a wig looked incredibly surprised to be winning. She happily took the shirt though.

 

“OK CHUMPS! NEXT we have most elegant! I think we can all agree it goes to Onionsan’s graceful butterfly masquerade costume!”

 

Onionsan broke the extra-extra large shirt trying to put it on her huge head, but Undyne tied a spare to her like a bowtie, which made her happy.

 

“Next for scariest costumes…”

 

Grillby squeezed Sans’ hand.

 

“Rick the human, as a human heel wrestler!”

 

Rick, who seemed to be a rather large human from the motorcycle gang that participated in the sandcastle contest, fist bumped Undyne and let out a wrestling shout.

 

“ASGORE, I love this one!”

 

“…Dangit…wrestler…I guess that makes sense…”

 

Oh well, Sans supposed the dog voting block had not been enough. He gave Grillby a pat on the side.

 

“Most creative… goes to Splash the water elemental for their costume as a glass of water!”

 

Splash hopped out of the giant glass his friend was carrying to accept the t-shirt. Grillby nodded. It was pretty brave to dress as a glass of anything in a bar, he was glad they won a category.

 

“and finally cutest couple goes to…. our very own Sans and Grillby! YEAH!”

 

Sans and Grillby were rather surprised and wandered onto stage while Undyne all but smothered Grillby throwing the shirt on the reluctant elemental.

 

“…Uh…but we were going for scariest…”

 

“shh, grillbz, i want the cute shirt.” Sans poked the tiny Grillby on his boyfriend's shirt, which had the benefit of also poking the real Grillby.

 

“…Heh…I am fine with this…”

 

Grillby and Sans smiled as they went back and the dogs woofed at them.

 

“YES dogs are cutest! Woof!”

 

After the prizes the dancing picked up for a few hours before most monsters went home. Grillby and Sans took breaks from waiting tables and tending bar long enough to twirl around the dance floor a few times.

 

Two human women were “reverse tick or treating” and handing out tiny candy bags to monsters. They finally made their way to Grillby and Sans who were chatting with Undyne, Doggo, and Apple.

 

“Oh hello Mr. Grillby! We love your bar! Want to try some human candy?” They held out a plastic pumpkin filled with treats. Since coming to the surface Grillby had seen a few varieties of the store-bought chocolates wrapped in plastic, but there were some more interesting varieties here.

 

“…Wow…what are these…I haven’t seen most of these in human stores?…”

 

The pale human woman with red curly hair smiled,

 

“Hah! Good! We figured you monsters might get turned off of human candy if you only saw the big names. I really like fruit flavored candy so I brought these bananaramas, unicorn pops, candy blackberries and raspberries, and fruit slices.”

 

The tan human woman with sleek black hair smiled,

 

“And I brought some of my favorites: cow tales, sugar daddys, rock candies, and licorice whips. Try one from each basket!”

 

“Cow tails? Oh Asgore.” Undyne looked a bit concerned.

 

“No, they are just long like cow tails, not made from them!”

 

“OK THEN! I will try a cow tail and a bananarama!”

 

“Woof! I don’t think candy is good for a canine diet, but I will try the one piece, bark!” 

 

“You can just lick this one! the other Dogs love it.” The human woman handed Doggo the rainbow colored horn.

 

Apple piped up,

 

_“Ooh, can I have the candy berries and licorice?”_

 

“Sure thing!” The humans delicately handed Apple the candy. Apple's eyes lit up in delight. Some monsters had a sweet tooth. She had a full set.

 

“huh, i’ll try the fruit slices and sugar daddys.” Sans figured they should get a variety.

 

“…huh…well uh, the fruit slices sound fun…but that leaves the rock candy…and I am not a rock monster, so…”

 

“No! It is sugar! Humans can eat them too! Here have this cherry one!”

 

“…Thank you!...” Grillby looked at the tiny red crystal structure. He did not really like minerals that much, but wow, it was nice.

 

“Have fun!” The humans walked off into the crowd to distribute more candy.

 

“OH MONSTER! We forgot to ask their names!” Undyne shouted while pounding her fist to the table.

 

“Woof! Let’s ask next time we see them. Let's eat!” Doggo scratched his head with his foot paw.

 

 _“Ooh I have a few pieces of the raspberry and blackberry ones. It is funny I have not tried either berry in real life yet. If you want I can trade a few pieces with anyone, I would feel bad eating them all.”_ Apple smiled and wiggled a gummy in front of Doggo. Despite his aversion to sweets he gobbled one down.

The monsters distributed the candy as evenly as they could: everyone got a fruit slice, a few bananaramas, and a few berries.

 

“CHOW TIME! Undyne chomped into the cow tale candy and shoved all her assorted fruit candy in her mouth at once.

 

Chomp Chomp Chomp.

 

“Delicious!”

 

Doggo unwrapped the lollipop and licked it. His ears perked up. He licked it again.

 

“Woof! This is great.” Lick, Lick, Lick. Doggo soon became lost in a trance of licking.

 

Grillby tried the bananaramas- they burnt up so quickly that he only got a faint whiff of food dye and color number 5. The berries and fruit slice lasted a bit longer, but the gumminess made his flames feel funny as he actually got to chew once or twice before they burned into a gunk of molten sugar- it was a bit sensational. I mean, Grillby sometimes had to magically chew food, but never much with sugar.

 

Grillby felt the gooey sugar burn up in his lava core.

 

Sans and Apple liked the bananagrams and gummies.

 

_“So much flavor! I can’t wait to taste the real thing! Hashtag surface candy!”_

Apple took a picture for her Undernet account with Doggo and Sans.

 

“You guys are going too slow, try the big stuff!”

 

_“Ok then, let me try licorice!”_

Apple unpeeled the licorice and Sans was reminded of a pasta noodle. Apple first tried slurping it, but then took a bit.

 

_“Ooh, it has a strong flavor! Very nice although, I thought you might have to suck on it, but turns out you need to bite it.”_

“ok, then i am going to take a big bite of this.”

 

Sans picked up the Sugar Daddy (a big hunk of caramel on a stick) and bit down with the candy between his teeth. He then tried to chew. His mouth was stuck together.

 

“…Sans…what is that candy like?…”

 

“mriim mhranm mmrhhmm mm mwrmmm!” Sans moved his jaws.

 

It was hard not to laugh. Undyne let out a guffaw with Doggo while Grillby and Apple suppressed a snicker.

 

“…Sans…you are in a sticky situation…” Grillby winked at Sans.

 

"mrhaaa mraa mraaaaa!" Sans was trying to laugh. This was getting dangerous.

 

Sans smiled at the pun, wiping a blue glowy tear from his eye, and then conjured a magical tongue to come between his teeth.

 

“phew. that was pretty funny, but i think i prefer candy that takes less effort. ok, grillbz, your turn.”

 

Grillby decided to conjure his own magical tongue and licked the rock candy. It started to immediately melt and burble down the stick in a black mass of bubbles. Grillby, not wanting to have to mop that off the floor later, quickly tossed the candy and stick into his mouth as it turned white hot and black- Pretty good candy and pretty good stick.

 

The monsters laughed at the human candy varieties and had a drink as the party mellowed out. Despite the incident earlier, monsters and humans alike had smiles on their faces.

 

**********************************************************

 

**whirrrr clink**

**whirrrr clink**

**whirrrrrr clink**

The coin in his head would never stop rolling if he tilted his head.

 

**whirrrr clink**

**whirrrrrr clink**

 

Reminding him that he had to count the coins, even in his dreams.

**Riiing whiirrr riiiing clink riing.**

What was that?

Sobek held his head still-for just a second, letting the coin slide to a halt.

 

**Ka-ching**

The bone phone was ringing. Ammit was out at the church. And Khephri was at a job site. Kuk would surely get it.

 

**whiiirr riiing clink riiing.**

**whiiir riiing riiing riiing**

 

**Ka-ching**

**riiing riiing riing**

No…wait. Kuk was at a surface party, something about wanting to meet Nile and Rus. Maybe if they got along they would take him next time. He had always wanted to see the surface.

 

**Riiing riiing riiing**

Oh…that meant he had to be the one to answer the phone. OK, he could do this, tomb curse be damned. But what time was it? He thought it was about late at night. No, it was morning? Perhaps he had lost track of time. He always lost track of time these days.

 

Sobek unglued his eye sockets from the table and lifted his eyes off of the gold coins. Ughh. It hurt to look away.

**Riiing riiing riiing**

**Sliiih sliih**

The coin slid back and forth gently in his skull.

 

Sobek grabbed a few coins as he stood, twirling them in his fingers. His skull ached from not staring at the coins on the table so he watched them as he walked.

 

**Riiing riiing riiing**

At this point whoever it was must have re-called. It must be important.

 

Sobek took one slow dragging step forward.

 

**Riiing riiing riiing**

 

Ok that first step was not so bad. He shuffled the remaining ten feet forward as the phone kept ringing.

 

**Sliiih sliih ka-clink**

Sobek tilted his head forward one last time as he wedged the phone between his skull and shoulder.

 

“Hello, this is Sobek Red. Who is calling?”

 

Sobek heard a very faint but relieved voice over the phone,

 

**“Hello father. Um, It is Kuk. I uh, have some explaining to do.”**

**********************************************************

 

As the bar closed and the last monsters left Grillby and Sans yawned up the stairs to his apartment, and curled into bed together. Both of them were too lazy to properly put pajamas on, so they just flopped onto Grillby’s bed in their boxers.

 

“…oh here Sans let me get you a blanket…”

 

Sans shook his head, and just pulled Grillby onto himself. Grillby sighed happily and blazed into Sans, their souls beating together. No blanket needed.

 

*********************************************************

“Well, Kuk, I am rather disappointed.”

 

**“I-I understand.”**

“But if you are willing to make amends I will come get you out.”

 

**“WH-what! Father, shouldn’t you just send Khepri?”**

 

Sobek sadly grabbed his arm. It shook badly and had a think wicked scratch that went through the bone.

“No. Khepri has made it clear what his views of the surface are to me. Besides, I wanted to visit Nile dearest. And son, I want to talk to you, too. I think we need to talk a bit about what you want to do moving forward.”

 

**“Father! I am sorry, I-I just don’t want you hurting yourself.”**

“Kuk, you have hurt me more tonight that this condition ever has. But it is my fault, too. I-I saw you going down this path- and I should have stopped it a bit sooner. I-I am stronger than monsters think. I am stronger than I think.”

 

**“Father- I am so sorry. But you know what happens when you try to ignore it. Stay home!”**

 

“No, Kuk. We need to talk. Without your mother. I may not get another chance. Now listen, I still love you son. But I love Nile, too. Part of being a good brother to her is to protect her-but you have to learn to listen to her. I want the two of you to be able to help each other. Now tell me how you got to the surface.”

 

 

Sobek was not sure what time of day it way, and he wasn’t even sure what season it was. He thew on a tunic, put some kohl under his eyes (to protect from the sunlight), and put the bail money in a coin purse. Holding three coins in his hand, he slowly took a step out of the house after what had felt like years. He felt his head twinge with a headache, but kept walking. 

 

**whirrrr clink**

**whirrrrrr clink**

 

His skull cried out in pain as he reached the entrance.  He fell to the ground. A kindly turtle man helped him up and he shuffled through to the outside world. To his son and daughter. They needed him.

 

********************************************

 

The next morning Grillby woke up engulfing Sans in a fiery blanket of a hug-his arms merging into Sans’ torso. It had been a bit since he had had Sans all curled up in his bed, and there was something satisfying about seeing the tiny skeleton nuzzle into his low magical flames. As Grillby became more solid and moved his arm up, Sans skeletal hand grabbed it.

 

Grillby tried to pull away, but Sans managed to grab the arm with his other hand and then curl into it. Well. Grillby supposed he could just let it go all flame-like again and lose the hand, but there wasn’t really a rush. Grillby could not help but radiate some extra heat and let it wash over the small skeleton.

 

Sans sighed and rolled into the center of the bed, his head resting between two pillows. Grillby smiled and touched his head to Sans’.

 

“mrm. grillbabe. no. help.”

 

Grillby’s flames shot up. Was Sans having a nightmare about the alternate timelines again? The skeleton continued to talk in his sleep,

 

“the pumpkin king”

 

The who?

 

“has captured paps. We have to save him.”

 

Grillby smiled and let out a laugh with relief.

 

“…We will…make a pumpkin pie out of him…”

 

"pie..."

 

Sans looked like he might start magically drooling. Time for breakfast then. 

 

Grillby left the bed and put a blanket over Sans. The restaurant was not open yet, but that just meant he had the place to himself: To the kitchen!

 

Grillby looked in his fridge. He was out of eggs, milk, and only half stick of butter. Aside from the butter, he had some cedar logs, candied pine bark from his mother, and a bunch of dryer lint he had coated in cinnamon-he was surprised humans just threw the lint away, but the local Laundromat and Dry cleaning place did not seem to mind him taking a few handfuls.

 

Ok, well he was pretty sure that Sans would not enjoy any of those options.

 

He opened the cabinets and it was not much better. He had flour, pinecones, a couple sheets of newspaper, vegetable oil, five cases of vodka, motor fluid, three potatoes, and some health food-ugh sorry Magmus-Grillby vowed to never eat that nasty copper flakes cereal.

 

Hmm…he could make hash browns with the potatoes and oil. Still, he figured eggs would be nice. He’d just borrow some from the restaurant supply. The bar was not open for another two hours so a shirtless Grillby threw on some sweatpants and a t-shirt and headed downstairs to borrow a few.

 

Grillby grabbed the eggs and then got distracted making crepes instead. After a half hour he had four perfect crepes, mimosas, and eggs shaped into hearts. He got the plastic sunflowers, opened the window by the booth and put on some music. He sighed-romantic breakfast alone with Sans.

 

**whirrrr clink**

**whirrrrrr clink**

 

**Sliiih sliih ka-clink**

 

Huh, what a weird noise coming through the window.

 

**Knock Knock**

Grillby looked at the door. The “CLOSED” sign was still on the door.

 

Still he had been waiting for a package for Sans…at this point a very late birthday present.

 

Grillby sighed and opened the door to be greeted with a large mummy man wearing what looked like a white tunic, sandals, eye make-up, and a polite smile. The mummy was nodding his head back and forth, and something seemed to be rolling in his skull. He carried several coins in his shaking hands and was covered in dust and leaves. His whole body was actually shaking quite a bit. 

 

Grillby took a closer look. The man's face looked incredibly strained. Small cracks had formed around the mummy's eye sockets. Grillby was not sure with necrotics, but that might not just be a sign of old age.

 

“…Oh…sir…are you alright?…have something to drink...” Grillby leaned forward and took the mummy’s hand. The mummy was shaking so much that Grillby’s flames shook, as well. Grillby led him to sit, and then ran to the kitchen grab him a glass of milk. Milk was good for skeletons, so it should work on Mummys right?

 

The mummy closed his eyes for a second and tried to lift the glass. Half the milk shook out of it. 

 

"...hold on!..."

 

Grillby dove into the bar and got out a curly straw. He splashed it into the milk. It was rather childish, but the older monster smiled as the milk went through.  The drink seemed to help and the shaking at least switched from being constant to being occasional.  The mummy found some napkins and cleaned up the spilled milk while Grillby re-filled his glass.

 

"...Better?..."

 

“Yes-Yes…I am alright. And I thank you for your-your kindness. I-I should not stay though.”

 

The mummy shook so violently that whatever was in his skull rattled inside it.

 

“…Ok, but I insist you sit down for another minute…the restaurant does not open for another hour and a half…but since you are not well… come in early…maybe have an omelette or something?...”

 

The mummy man bowed his head remained seated.

 

“No-no I cannot accept such undeserved hospitality. I am sorry to inconvenience you so. I-I came from the Underground and I did not actually realize what time it was. I emerged to see the sun-but it was a lot dimmer than I imagined-a pale white. It just left the sky, which means sunset right? So you open in the evening?”

 

Grillby looked outside, it was still dark out-although the sun would rise soon. The monster had wandered out of the Underground and along the road to town in the moonlight.

 

“…Well, actually I open in the morning…that was not the sun, but the moon…”

 

**ka-ching**

 

“Oh, goodness!”

 

The mummy man looked excited,

 

“So, I have et to see it. I am so excited-ah, but the task at hand-” The mummy man paused and sighed.

 

“I would assume you are the fire being Grillby?”

 

“…Yes…”

 

“I must apologize to you. I have heard my son was here last night, and caused a disturbance. My son Kuk. I am Sobek, Kuk and Nile’s father.”

 

Grillby’s soul sank and he nodded, his flames lowered.

 

The mummy noticed and sighed. He put a hand to the table and his arm popped as he began to stand. The mummy man pulled out a small pouch and painstakingly dropped it on the table. His hand shook particularly aggressively as he let the sack fall, a few coins spilling out.

 

“I understand if you do not wish for me to be here. Please take this for damages.”

 

Grillby, realizing the mummy meant to leave, stood up himself,

 

“…Wait…Please stay a moment!… thank you for apologizing…I-I mean it happens…I am rather upset at Kuk..but Nile is a good friend…the money is not necessary...there were no damages...I just…I am upset….Nile...her home life sounded horrible…I heard she was kept magic drained for years…”

 

Sobek sighed and all but collapsed onto the table exhausted from the effort of trying to leave the coins,

 

“I-It is my fault. If-if I was stronger I could have prevented that. But my wife and sons have become zealots due to my condition- and I have become-”

 

Grillby winced as the Mummy man struggled to let his eyes leave the table.

 

“Rather useless in raising my own children.”

 

“…no-no...Mr. Sobek... I mean I heard it was her mother…”

 

“I wish I could do more for her. But I can barely walk. A turtle monster had to help me for most of the journey. Here I am. Her useless father. His useless father...”

 

Sobek dropped his head to the table.

 

“…wait…no...I am sorry...I understand...and I am sure Nile understands, too. You say you are useless, but you came to the surface despite your...your condition!...I can tell you are a monster that cares about your children...”

 

Sobek lifted his head from the table.

 

“It is kind of you to say, but I-I should be going though. I need to inquire how to get my son out of prison. And well. I would love to visit Nile. And to apologize to Rus and his brother. Also. I know there were no damages, but please keep the gold. I-I would like to be rid of some of it.”

 

Sobek started to stack the spilled gold coins on the table.He looked pained as he touched each gold disc.

 Grillby still wanted the monster to stay a bit. he looked like if he stood up he would crack in half from the strain.

“…Oh…I understand you wanting to leave...but do you even know where the jail is?…Or where Papyrus and Sans’ house is?...You see…Sans is upstairs…he is my boyfriend…You can just apologize to him while you are here…Papyrus works here, and he usually come in early for breakfast with Nile…I can call…and besides...I think all that gold should at least pay for a breakfast special...”

 

Sobek’s eyes lit up yellow for less than a second. The mummy man smiled, revealing that he was missing his top row of teeth.

 

“You are too kind, young man. Thank you.”


	45. In which Grillby gets enough money to buy a new car and Sans is shocked

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sobek and the gang get to know each other a little better. They have some time to kill before Sobek gets Kuk, and the old Mummy has a lot of fun stories to tell Sans and Papyrus about what being a necrotic monster is like. If only Sobek could get Papyrus' name right!

Sobek and Sans were talking politely at the table. Grillby put out the eggs and crepes for everyone, and was working on a second batch for Nile and Papyrus. Grillby has insisted Sobek take at least half the coins he given him back.

 

Grillby was good at haggling, but Sobek had had five-hundred years to practice…

 

“No, no, I do not see the big deal, it is just a handful of coins. Can’t be more than twelve gold pieces. And besides you are a nice monster Grillby! You did not have to make me breakfast.”

 

 

“… Like I am trying to insist…the human monster exchange rate is ridiculous…This is more than I will make the rest of the day…maybe even week…”

 

Sobek looked sad,

 

“But your food is great!”

 

“…No…no…It is a popular restaurant!...”

 

After a few more minutes of arguing, Sobek still refused.

 

“…Alright…but you eat free here for life…”

 

“Well, ok, sure. The food is delectable, and I probably will be stuck Underground anyway once my wife gets a hold of me. The next time you see me, with the pieces that are left, I might not even be able to eat! But please spend it on something for yourself and Sans.”

 

Sobek turned to Sans and Grillby, smiling. He wanted to make a good impression with Rus’ family after all.

 

 

**whirrrr clink**

**whirrrrrr clink**

 

 

“So young man, you are a scientist! How wonderful. You kept the core running?” Sobek lifted his head from the table for a second to meet Sans eye sockets.

 

“well for a while, but after a uh, mentor of mine… fell in, i uh, went into a few other careers. i uh, worked as a judge to asgore, guarded snowden, and even did part time at a comedy club-although now i’m back to research.”

 

“Oh no! I am sorry about your mentor! Those awful puzzles near the core always made me nervous.”

 

Sans nodded.

 

“But you were a judge to Asgore! What a motivated young man you are! You must be magically talented if that is the case!”

 

“uh, yes.” Sans stared at Sobek wondering how this mummy would feel about magic.

 

“Well that is-”

 

**whirrrr clink**

**whirrrrrr clink**

 

 

“Great! I was never very talented at it myself, although I have some skills. What type of magic do you have?”

 

**whirrrrrr clink**

 

“blue magic-subtype gravity. i can also do bone attacks with a blue-white aura, and summon skeletal heads. uh, and i can teleport. here.”

 

Sans short-cutted to a different table and pulled his plate over with gravity magic before popping back with it.

 

Sobek’s eye glowed for a second,

 

“Wow! I mean Asgore that is amazing! And to think Horus never mentioned.”

 

**Whirrrrrr clink**

 

 

“Oh, you mean Papyrus? He has blue gravity magic as well although his is better for pressing things down. His magic also has a stronger cold aura, but he can’t teleport.”

 

**whirrrrrr clink**

 

**whirrrrrr clink**

 

“If you were looking for a job-let me tell you, that gravity magic is amazing, could use someone with magic in my carpentry business-well I could have, but I am retired now. My other son Khepri runs that now. Kuk helps him, but I think I might suggest he do other work.”

 

**whirrrrrr clink**

 

**whirrrrrr clink**

 

 

“It is a shame they hate magic so much. But neither of them got my magic: brown sand magic. Nile darling has it too! It is very useful for mixing cement! And Well um, you know for uh taking down structures with rot. Of course I can’t summon a bone to save my life. Wish I had my mother’s magic- green mummy magic. She was able to heal others a bit by summoning green bandages! When I saw that Nile’s eyes glowed green, I thought maybe she took after her grandmummy! Ha haha!”

 

**whirrrrrr clink**

 

**whirrrrrr clink**

 

Sans looked at Sobek, the mummy seemed happy.

 

“Yes Nile is such a good daughter. She is very talented. I heard she got offered an architecture job. I had wanted to congratulate her. And to be honest I have wanted to see the surface since I was a babybones.”

 

**whirrrrrr clink**

 

Sobek looked sad.

 

“I was already stuck in the house when she was born you know…I didn’t want them to do the magic sealing ritual on her…but well…monsters stop listening to you after you have an illness…thankfully it did not work…”

 

**whirrrrrr clink**

 

**whirrrrrr clink**

 

Sans did not know what Sobek was talking about, but decided not to press for it.

 

“Anyway Sans, your magic reminds me of-uh”

**Whirrrrrr ka-cling**

 

“huh- of someone I can’t picture.”

 

Sans nodded and wondered if Sobek had once met Gaster.

 

*************

**Whirrrrrr ka-cling**

 

Sobek quickly tilted his head to look out the window. The sun was not rising quite yet, but it would be soon. Sans heard an engine turn off through the window.

 

Nile and Papyrus rushed through the door.

 

Sobek who had been holding a piece of toast turned it to dust in his hand in surprise.

 

_“FATHER! PLEASE TELL ME YOU DID NOT WALK HERE?”_

“Heh heh, What was I supposed to do? Wait two hundred years for them to release Kuk from the Human dungeon? I might not make it another two hundred! Besides a walk is good for these old bones!”

 

Sobek tried to stand to hug Nile but ended up shaking down onto the table, rattling the plates.

 

Sobek instead shimmied over in the booth. Nile sat next to him, while Papyrus scooted in next to Sans. Grillby pulled up a chair and brought everyone some toast, eggs, and crepes.

 

_“BUT SERIOSULY FATHER, HOW DID YOU COME ALL THE WAY HERE? DID YOU TAKE A CAR?”_

**whirrrrrr clink**

“A Car? I am not sure what you mean. A nice turtle lady helped me through the cave exit and through the town.”

 

**whirrrrrr clink**

 

“She seemed like she was read to give her husband an earful for staying on the surface all night. I walked so slowly, but thankfully we walked at about the same speed.”

 

Sans wondered if Gerson had a wife. And if so, was she even more cantankerous than he was?

 

_“AH, A CAR IS SORT OF A HORSE-LESS CHARIOT. THE SURFACE IS SO LARGE THEY NEED THEM TO GET AROUND.”_

Sobek had never really read much of the human literature that fell down the garbage dump.

“Amazing! Is that what those large metal things littering the streets are?”

 

_“PY ACTUALLY DRIVES ONE OF THEM! HE IS TEACHING ME, TOO!”_

**ka-clink**

 

“A horseless chariot? Is it safe?”

 

“ABSOLUTELY! I AM AN EXCELLENT DRIVER! IN FACT, WE CAN TAKE YOU FOR A SPIN ON THE SURACE IF YOU WANT? I CALLED THE POLICE STATION WHERE KUK IS, HE IS SEEING THE JUDGE NOW, AND THEY EXPECT HE CAN LEAVE IN THE LATE AFTERNOON.”

 

“ooph, i didn’t know humans could be judges, too. but i guess that is something that you can just be trained to do.”

 

Sans wondered how humans read souls. All monsters could at least check a soul. Some monsters were better at it than others, and Asgore had helped him train his innate ability to get a personality reading. More magically gifted monsters could sometimes do it by accident, but it had taken a month or two of training with Asgore before he was a real Judge. You could do other things too, like how Toriel could see the soul types and subtypes. He had absolutely no gift for that.

 

“…I heard it takes them years to become one…and that the process is riddled with favoritism…and something about politics…”

 

There was a very grumpy human lawyer that frequented the bar.

 

Sans figured that made more sense.

 

“THE RIDE WILL HAVE TO BE A BIT SHORT BECAUSE I HAVE WORK, THOUGH.”

 

“…well…actually…Stan asked if he could take Tuesday off…so…if he agrees you can have his afternoon slot…”

 

Papyrus turned to Grillby and smiled.

 

“…Just let me call to confirm…”

 

_“OK, BUT LET’S GO OUTSIDE FIRST!”_

“WHY-THERE IS STILL TOAST?”

 

_“I THINK IT WOULD BE NICE FOR FATHER TO SEE THE SUNRISE.”_

 

************************************

 

Nile and Papyrus held Sobek up and though the door while Grillby and Sans leaned into each other. Nile had Sobek hold her sand pendant for a few seconds. Sans had not considered it, but as the cracks around Sobek’s eye-sockets filled in, the Mummy must have been magic starved.

 

**whirrrrrr clink**

 

“Ahhh…That is much better.”

 

Sobek glowed his eyes a bright yellow and took a step forward. It seemed like the magic strengthened him. He shook less and only had to hold the coins in a fist.

 

**whirrrrrr clink**

 

Sans remembered his first sunrise on the surface. They had camped outside the entrance to the Underground-he would never forget the shimmering sun rising over the green tree tops, first a pink color, then a gold-orange, and then the sky was filled with blue. He had gotten so caught up in surface life, it was nice to appreciate the sunrise again. Sans leaned into Grillby.

 

This one was beautiful, Sobek sighed and hugged Nile as the pink-orange light came over the town.  

 

“Thank you. Rus, Grillby, Sans, It is wonderful to share the sunrise with such nice monsters.

 

*********

Grillby called Stan, and the tsundereplane and Papyrus agreed to trade shifts for the week.

 

Papyrus helped Sobek into the front seat, while Sans and Nile sat in the back. Grillby decided to make a quick run to the bank to convert Sobek’s generous gift and asked Sans to pick up a few cases of eggs (they were running low after Grillby’s crepe obsession).

 

“TO THE SUPERMARKET! NYEH HEH HEH. AFTER WE RETURN THE EGGS PERHAPS WE CAN TAKE YOU SOMEWHERE NICE WHERE YOU CAN REFILL YOUR MAGIC?”

 

It was a bit chilly, but Papyrus started the ride with the convertible top off. While a bit bracing, the sensation of the wind on their bones was fantastic. Besides, once Grillby was in the car they would have to keep it down.

 

Sobek closed his eye sockets. Ah-the wind was so nice. He could not longer hear the coins in his hands and head…if only it would last.

 

Sobek opened his eye sockets and gasped as Papyrus neatly merged and picked up speed to 60 mph. Sobek’s eyes went wide as Papyrus passed a truck going 45 mph, and went even wider as he notices the far reaching landscape.

 

After a few minutes, Papyrus raised the cover so the monsters could talk.

 

“Your chariot driving skills are excellent! It is so fun! I never want to go anywhere any other way now! Haa ha! Who knew this old pile of dust could be so fast.”

 

“NYEH HEH HEH, THANKS.”

 

“be careful paps here will drive you crazy!”

 

“Heh heh heh. If I were a younger monster I might try driving myself.”

 

“WELL I COULD TEACH YOU, TOO.”

 

_“OH YES, YOU WOULD LOVE IT.”_

“Ahh, this silly tomb curse. It, uh, prevents me from properly focusing.”

 

Nile bowed her head…oops.

 

“But I can do a lot more when I have others helping me get around. It is wonderful to see the surface.”

 

Nile decided to make best of the situation.

 

_“THERE IS SO MUCH UP ON THE SURFACE. IS THERE ANYTHING YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE TODAY, WE CAN MAYBE JUST GO TO ONE PLACE?”_

Sobek chuckled.

 

“it is very childish.”

 

“OH, COME ON, HAVE SOME FUN! NYEH HEH HEH.”

 

“Well, as a little mummy I always wanted to see a camel.”

 

_“UH, ARE CAMELS NATIVE TO CALIFORNIA?”_

“uh, no, but there is that zoo, it’s a bit of a drive though but, cam-on we can fit it in!”

 

The others looked confused.

 

“ok, the pun was bad, but was it really that awful?”

 

“ZOO?”

 

“humans keep rare animals in enclosures. apparently humans are really bad at habitat destruction, so they have a captive breeding program for some types.”

 

“Oh no! If camels are endangered, I really want to see them.”

 

Sans looked up the closest zoo with camels. It would be a day-trip, and they would get back around 6PM if they wanted to take the time to enjoy themselves, but Nile assured Sobek that Kuk probably deserved an extra hour in prison.

 

“ok, it says this zoo in particular is known for being humane and having large enclosures that give the animals lots of space to run around in. it also is a pioneer of treating elephants-a surface creature- with respect and also has one of the largest veterinary hospitals in the country.”

 

The Underground did not have any zoos-although Sans remembered when one of the school field trips took them to a crawfish farm. He remembered falling asleep-crawfish were not the most exciting animal.

 

“WOW! Elephants, too! Nile I taught you about those right? Hehheh…”

 

_“OH YES, THE ONES WITH THE ENORMOUS EARS RIGHT? I FORGET ARE THEY A RELATIVE OF THE MOUSE?”_

Sobek nodded,

 

“I mean one would imagine so, the similarities are uncanny!”

 

The monsters stopped at the supermarket and Kuk excitedly hobbled around it with Nile. While Sans got eggs, Kuk raided the fruit and vegetable aisle.

 

“THEY just let you pick up things on your own in a little basket! Crazy! Ammit might not have my head if I get her something nice. What is this enormous striped berry?”

 

Nile smiled and helped her father pick out a watermelon, sweet corn, pears, and finally, some dates.

 

“Ok, I have heard these are quite good.”

 

Sans, Papyrus, and Nile hadn’t tried the dates yet. As soon as they got out of the store everyone snuck one. They were sweet and delicious.

 

“Well, Ammit may only get to try one or two of these lovelies…”

 

************************************

 

As the monsters were almost back at the bar, a car ahead of them started to swerve out of lane and off road. Without thinking Papyrus’ eyes lit up and the car stopped tail spinning. The driver looked confused, but thankfully unharmed. The human pulled out their phone for a tow.

 

_“OH PY! YOU HELPED THAT HUMAN!”_

“OH, WELL THEY WOULD HAVE DONE THE SAME FOR ME- IF THEY COULD.”

 

“Heh. Well Horus, you keep showing me you are wonderful!”

 

_“I AM GLAD YOU LIKE HIM DAD, BUT IT IS PAPYRUS! NOT HORUS!”_

“NYEH HEH HEH, IT IS OK, THE NAME IS STARTING TO GROW ON ME.”

 

Papyrus pulled into the parking lot near Grillby’s.

**whirrrrrr clink**

 

Sobek looked confused for a second.

 

“Right right, you are so young I should really remember.”

 

**whirrrrrr clink**

“Ah, sorry Papyrus. You see you look so much like your father; my old rotted brain just can’t keep it straight! I just realized I’d seen your face before. Ha haha. I mean, I am not really friends with Horus, but I remember every customer.”

 

Sans and Papyrus’ souls skipped a beat.

 

**whirrrrrr clink clink**

 

**whirrrrrr clink**

 

**whirrrrrr clink**

 

 

“Hehheh…Yes, that is how I recognize you. It was driving me crazy-well more crazy. I remember building the addition to his house years ago. I mean there are only so many half-mummy half-skeleton monsters in Little Necropolis who needed a new room for their baby bones, you know? And he was so excited about having a son. I suppose that is you Sans!”

 

Sobek smiled happily at Sans. Sans felt like he had been punched in the sternum.

 

“Of course who wouldn’t be excited! Having kids is difficult for necrotics, after all. We aren’t exactly full of life-Heh Heh Heh **clink.** Every new monsterling is a celebration! Anyway, my condition worsened a few years after that, when little Nile was born. Hmm… it is weird Ammit does not know you already Papyrus…I think he went to the same Church of Zhurg. Maybe I am wrong, and am thinking of someone else?”

 

Sobek jerked his head upwards. Sans had a moment of hope.

 

**whirrrrrr clink clink**

“No, No I am not. Your mom looks just like you Sans- but well she is even smaller. Before I had to stay mostly indoors-I saw Horus once or twice before that around Little Necropolis and his wife-she would sometimes take you up and down the street in a stroller. She was such a little thing! Her name was, uh, I uh, was never introduced, uh please excuse my rudeness-what is your mother’s name?”

 

“ONYX.”

 

Papyrus locked eyes with Sans and mouthed an apology. He had apparently done some research.

 

 

A certain excited fire elemental spotted the idling car through the window and finished helping Stan and a few other servers open. He waved and started to run up to the car.

 

Papyrus stared at his hands.

 

“BUT WE WERE PUT UP FOR ADOPTION DUE TO OUR HIGH MAGIC LEVELS. SO THAT IS WHY MRS. RED DOES NOT KNOW US.”

 

**ka-kling**

Sobek jerked his head and glowed his eyes yellow, looking very surprised.

“Ah-Ah…I-I am sorry to bring such a thing up. And you… you told me you grew up in the capitol…ah I suppose without them….ah…ahh. Well, you know, it does not matter-really the important thing is that you are two nice young mon-”

 

“what was their last name?”

 

Sans eye was glowing.

 

**Whirrrrrr clink whiiiiiirrrrrrrr**

“Oh…well I suppose it was… it was Font…It’s a pretty common last name for skeletons…”

 

Sobek met Nile’s eye, apologetically.

 

 

********************

 

Grillby finished running up to the car. Oh man! Surface animals! In a zoo! He had a camera, binoculars, had printed out a zoo map, and an emergency potion kit.

 

“…Hey everyone! Oh man!...A zoo!...I am so excite-”

 

Grillby’s flame almost fizzled out as Sans looked like he was ready to cry.

 

“…Sans…are you ok?…”

 

“uh yeah, grillbz. let me just bring these eggs in.”

 

“I AM GOING TO HELP MY BROTHER WITH THE EGGS!”

 

Grillby could tell something was wrong, as Sans picked half the cases of eggs up and just carried them.

 

Just carried them.

 

No floating them with gravity magic. No teleporting into the kitchen with them. No pun about how they were ‘eggcellent.” Maybe if Grillby said it?

 

“...Sans it is really eggcellent that you got the eggs…”

 

Sans did not smile. H was upset for sure.

 

“….Uh…Sans… I can help…if you want…” Grillby started towards Sans, but Papyrus pushed in between.

 

“OH, NYEH HEH HEH, THANKS GRILLBY! HOWEVER, I THINK _I_ NEED TO HELP SANS WITH THE EGG-CARRYING.”

 

The very worried fire elemental got into the backseat.

 

*****

Sans and Papyrus shuffled the eggs into the kitchen.

 

“BROTHER, ARE YOU OK?”

 

Sans looked at Papyrus. Now that he was out of the car he had a few magical tears in his eye socket.

 

“well. i mean knowing their names doesn’t change how i feel.”

 

Sans let out a few sobs.

 

Papyrus tried giving him a hug.

 

“BROTHER, I AM SORRY. I LOOKED UP OUR MOTHER’S NAME WITH NILE WHILE YOU WERE GONE. PLEASE DO NOT BE MAD AT ME.”

 

“no, it is ok.”

 

Sans tried to put the eggs on the counter, but had to use his foot to get the step stool out form under the sink.

 

Papyrus put his eggs down and scooted it over for him.

 

“UM, I DID NOT LOOK UP OUR FATHERS. I WAS… NOT INERESTED.”

 

“i mean it is not.”

 

Sans let out one more sob.

 

“IT IS NOT-IT IS NOT OK?” Papyrus looked upset, too.

 

Sans, caught his brother’s worried face and shook his head,

 

“no, don’t worry bro. i even told you to look it up without me if you wanted. it is not that i care what his dumb name is. it is that-that he actually was excited to have us-he built a little extra room for us-and then poof we are magical-and he just hates us, to the point where our mother put us up for adoption for our friggin’ safety. it just makes me angry.”

 

Sans climbed up the stool and sadly slid the egg crates to the back of the counter.

 

Sans said he was angry, but as the tears dried up, Papyrus could not help but notice that he really just looked sad.

 

“IT-IT MAKES ME UPSET TOO SANS. AND IT MADE ME UNHAPPY NOT TO HAVE KNOWN OUR MOM, AND-AND TO KNOW THAT SHE STAYED IN A DANGEROUS SITUATION. BUT-BUT I HAVE YOU. AND I WANT TO LET YOU KNOW THAT-THAT IS ALL THAT REALLY MATTERS…HERE.”

 

Papyrus handed Sans a paper towel, and Sans dried his eyes.

 

Stan the tsundere plane came in for a second,

 

“Hey guys thanks for the egg delivery! And Paps, I owe you one! Can we talk on Monday- I want to ask you about maybe making this a recurring shift trade?”

 

“OH, UH SURE THING STAN!” Papyrus had to wipe away a small tear himself.

 

Stan perhaps sensing something was amiss. He quickly grabbed some orange juice from the fridge into his cargo hold and flew back to the tables.

 

Sans watched him leave,

 

“well, we should head back outside.”

 

“OK, BUT SANS, IF YOU ARE NOT FEELING IT WE DO NOT HAVE TO SEE THE ZOO TODAY.”

 

“no, i-”

 

Sans thought for a few seconds, was he really going to be ok? He took a deep breath,

 

“i honestly think holing up would be worse. besides, i’m a grown monster. and seeing you and grillby have fun with the animals is going to cheer me up more than binge watching mtt while eating nice-cream. or worse yet i could go in to do work on the weekend.”

 

“WELL, SANS, I AM GLAD YOU ARE COMING, IT WOULD BE BONELY WITHOUT YOU!”

 

Papyrus gave Sans a quick hug and Sans smiled. Papyrus would only do puns on rare occasions or when he was upset.

 

“heh, so did you find out anything else about mom?”

 

“YES, I DID. SOME OF IT IS COOL! SOME OF IT IS SAD…MAYBE AFTER THE ZOO?”

 

“yeah. after the zoo.”

 

****************************************

 

 

Sans smiled as he got into the car. Papyrus nodded at Nile. The others were staring at them and trying their best to smile and not smile.

 

“hey i’m ok now, it was just a bit of a shock.”

 

“…Aww Sans…”

 

Grillby hugged Sans so hard that they merged a bit. Sans blushed.

 

“Sans and Papyrus, I am still sorry for ruining the mood.” Sobek frowned, his head not moving.

 

“no, it is ok. it is just weird thinking about it.”

 

“I AM FINE, IT WAS JUST SURPRISING.”

 

“uh, if it is not too inappropriate, and uh if for nothing else to change he subject a little, why is it so special when a necrotic is born, dr. jangles never mentioned that to me.”

 

“Oh, sure sure. He probably did not because it probably wont be a problem with you. Once necrotics decided to stop the protest against having monsterlings some found it was hard to do. Simply put: some necrotics aren’t very good at uh, creating life. We were once re-animated dead after all! So the entire process is magical. And our community has been shunning the more magical monsters as of late. So, for the less magically inclined necrotics, it sometimes it takes a few decades of trying. And then when you have a monsterling it can take a toll on the magic you have, so each one is harder, Heheh!”

 

_“A FEW DECADES?”_

 

“Oh, Nile! Didn’t your mother ever tell you, at the age of five hundred plus we did not even think we could have little mummies anymore! Then all the sudden three! Three! Thankfully, I had some savings for you all.”

 

_“IS THAT WHY THERE WERE ONLY FIVE OTHER STUDENTS IN MY CLASS?”_

“Probably. I was so happy you had Apple and Zostra to play with. Khepri’s class had four, but was all girls but him, and they did not want to play with him. Poor Kuk only had one other lich child to play with!”

 

 

“what do you mean take a toll on your magic? was nile a wild child?” Sans smiled at Nile.

 

“Oh every monsterling exhausts their parents a bit, and my magic started to dwindle after monsterlings-although I suspect from old age more than the kids. Regardless, some monsters believe that when you have a monsterling it takes away some of your magic and life force to make them, and as they get older they pull more of you away. You know like how Boss monsters don’t age unless they have offspring.”

 

“OH WOW! POOR UNDYNE AND ALPHYS!”

 

“…I think they are fine…it is just speculation…my father had Magmus a long long time ago…and he has had a long life for an elemental…”

 

The others nodded in agreement-it was silly. The group enjoyed the rest of the carried, with Sobek regaling them with tales of mummy curses and Nile’s childhood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wonder if a lot of people predicted this? If you did congrats! The next chapter is fun, so we will find out more about the new character later.


	46. In which the monsters just have a good time at the zoo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The monsters enjoy themselves. Sobek gains a dream. Sans and Grillby find a new favorite animal.

The monsters pulled into the zoo.

 

Nile and Papyrus charged ahead with Sobek in tow while Sans and Grillby slowly wrapped their arms around each other and headed in.

 

“any animals you excited to see grillbabe?”

 

“….hmmm…well I do not know a lot of the surface animals…so I suppose ones that are not like animal monsters… the muntjak sound cute…tiny deer that bark…from India!…my father told me to look for them…and for tigers… although that will be more awkward…”

 

“ex who was a tiger?”

 

“…heh…sorry…he was an asshole…Eric the tigermonster…”

 

“well, we can skip the tiger if you want. but remember they aren’t monsters, just animals.”

 

Grillby and Sans caught up to the others who had already bought them some tickets.

 

“OH MY ASGORE, I AM SO EXCITED, SHOULD WE RUN UP TO THE CAMELS RIGHT AWAY?”

 

A zookeeper looked at Papyrus,

 

“Young man, remember the zoo rules!” The older human lady with black hair peppered with grey smiled and pointed at a sign.

 

Papyrus squinted to read,

“QUIET COYOTE REMINDS US TO SPEAK SOFTLY AND MOVE SLOWLY AROUND WILD ANIMALS, LIKE THE ONES HERE AT OAKLAND ZOO”

 

Nile and Papyrus looked at each other and started panicking.

 

_“OH NO PY, OUR VOICES ARE NATURALLY LOUD! WE DO NOT WANT TO BREAK THE HUMAN LAWS!”_

The zookeeper looked concerned,

 

“Uh, it’s not a law, just respectful to th-”

 

“Oh no! Not you two as well, no more of my children and future son in laws are going to jail.”

 

“FUTURE WHA-” Papyrus almost choked on the air.

 

The human zookeeper walked up to them,

 

“No one is going to jail for talking loudly in a zoo, just use your quiet voices and keep calm so you do not disturb the animals. Like a library.”

 

“OK HOW IS THIS?” Papyrus whispered.

 

 _“WE HAVE CAPITOL FONT VOICES. OH IT IS SUCH A PAIN EVERYONE ALWAYS THINKS I AM SHOUTING AT THEM…”_ Nile explained as quietly as she could.

 

“UGH, NILE, YOUR VOICE IS MELODIOUS, THE HUMAN WAS ONLY WORRIED THAT MINE MIGHT SCARE THE CAMELS.” Papyrus whispered.

 

“Oh, um…uh well I apologize, humans do not have that, uh, uh, condition? I just heard you saying you were going to run to the camels, please just walk quietly. You do not have to whisper, just do your best not to make a ruckus.” The zookeeper was turning a bit red.

 

Sans felt bad for the zookeeper, but he also felt bad for Nile and Papyrus, who were a little sensitive about their font voices.

 

“it’s not a condition, they just have different voices. for the record bro- i’m totally jealous! your voice is really prominent, while people never take me seriously for some reason, heh heh heh.”

 

“I apologize for the misunderstanding. Here at the Oakland Zoo we want every family to have a great time. Is this your first time at a zoo? Can I help you with anything.” The zookeeper seemed like she was trying her best to help them smile.

 

Papyrus looked at Sans, clearly wanting him to do the talking.

 

“oh, um, this is our first time seeing a lot of surface animals, and sobek here really wants to see the camels. is there any other animal we should see?”

 

“Oh, wow! you came all the way here just to see camels. How refreshing, most come for the lions or elephants. You know this is the only zoo in California that has elephants? We are very proud here of our commitment to their ethical treatment and care. If you take a right at the flamingo exhibit through the entrance, continue right and go down the path, the camels are the first one. Follow that path for lions, elephants, and zebras. I think all our exhibits are well kept, but I also am particularly fond of our Sun bear exhibit. It is on the other side, but I hope you see it before you leave. Enjoy!”

 

The group moved into the zoo and as the Zookeeper had mentioned there was an exhibit of flamingos.

 

_“IN ADDITION TO FLAMINGOS, SPOONBILLS ARE IN HERE! OH LOOK AT THEIR LITTLE BEAKS- IT IS REALLY LIKE A SPOON.”_

“Ah birds- I wish I could fly like them.” Sobek smiled, his few teeth sparkling in the sun.

“WOW! I WONDER IF RED’S ANCESTOR WITH ONE OF THESE BIRDS? HIS BEAK IS KIND OF CURVED?”

 

“huh, i thought he mentioned something about coming from magical duck royalty?

 

“OH MY GOODNESS, BUT HE IS SO HUMBLE?”

 

“you two lovebirds want a picture?” Sans took a picture of Nile and Papyrus posing with the flamingos and the group moved on, turning right, away from tigers and towards camels.

 

“wait-what are those? are they a type of horse?”

 

“… an even more terrifying horse…Asgore why…”

 

A yellow looking tall horse-thing was walking around, its head poking through some trees.

 

Grillby pulled out his map and struggled with the word,

 

“…hmm they are called…gir…affes… we can get a better look if we go left a bit.”

 

Sans eyes lit up.

 

“um, paps, nile, sobek, do you mind if we look at these guys?”

 

“NYEH HEH HEH, WE WILL WAIT FOR YOU TWO, SO CHECK THEM OUT SANS, JUST MEET UP WITH US AT THE CAMEL EXHIBIT.”

 

Grillby and Sans went down the proper path and got a closer look. They had never heard of giraffes before or seen a monster that looked like them.

 

The giraffes were grazing in the field. One came up to the water feature, and moved its legs to a forty-five degree angle to drink some water.

 

“…They are enormous!...Wow!... Do you think… giraffe monsters exist?…”

 

“huh, i mean, maybe, but what if they, uh didn’t make it through the war?”

 

“…Hmm…my father mentioned that dragon monsters used to be larger…”

 

“they are pretty big, though, i mean, i met one bigger than onionsan once, you know. what does it have to do with giraffes?”

 

“…no…he said they were the size of houses…and that some dino-monsters were like that too…but they were big… so they were easy targets during the war…”

 

Grillby’s flames flickered as the wind blew.

 

A larger giraffe walked up to a smaller giraffe and started grooming it.

 

“…Awww…. It is a giraffe dad taking care of its… cub…”

 

“how do you know it is a male giraffe?”

 

“…uh, it has horns?...”

 

“tori has horns.”

 

“…Look Sans…it may surprise you…but I am not an expert on animal biology…”

 

“i think they all have horns. it is cute.”

 

Grillby asked a zoo guide, who was clearly a little scared of the walking fire man asking him how to sex giraffes, and relayed the info,

 

“…well…males and females have horns…although male horns tend to be longer… that one is a female…apparently the males are more solitary…”

 

“the horns are so cute. i think they’d make any animal cuter.”

 

“…I could have horns if you wanted…”

 

Grillby tried parting his flames to form horns. It worked for a few seconds, but the flames spread back out to just be two fronds of flames, and then a single large flame.

 

“…Eh…my hair never cooperates…”

 

“aww, grillbz, you always look cute.”

 

“…as long as you don’t leave me for Toriel and her horns…”

 

“nah, tori’s not my type. you might have to worry about king fluffy buns though…”

 

“…Hahaha…I thought that was Alphys’ thing…”

 

“eh, you are right, besides, once i started working for the guy my boyhood crush was gone. you’re the only monster for me, grillby.”

 

Sans nuzzled Grillby, and Grillby held Sans in his arms.

 

Another adult giraffe was standing, but its eyes were closed in slumber.

 

“heh heh, i found the sans giraffe.”

 

“…Then which one… is the Grillby giraffe?...”

 

Sans looked around. Most of the giraffes were grazing. As he was looking one started to awkwardly gallop, keeping its tail curved up its side, one set of legs longer than the other. It paraded around the enclosure until it got to the water and angrily stomped into it before posing on a rock.

 

Grillby and Sans laughed,

 

“…Do not say it Sans…”

 

“no, that would be the papyrus giraffe.”

 

The giraffe continued to pose and swish its tail.

 

“…maybe the Mettaton giraffe..”

 

The two giggled and watched the giraffes a bit longer, holding each other gently.

 

**********

Sans and Grillby found themselves getting lost in the moment. Sans short-cutted the pair back to the main path and they hustled to the camels.

 

Thankfully the others were still enjoying the exhibit, although Sobek was shaking slightly.

 

There were four one-humped camels, three light brown, one darker brown.

 

Sobek smiled at a dark brown colored camel that was grazing near the edge of the enclosure. Two others were lying together and nuzzling together near the water. The fourth was playing with a tube filled with special grass feed.

 

“Heh, I would love to live in a dessert with these guys. Have a farm of them. Sobek the great camel farmer.”

 

Sobek was lost imagining a dessert oasis with a fluffy camel farm.

 

He was so lost in thought, he was barely moving the coins in his hand as he watched the camel chew its food.

 

 

_“OH FATHER, YOU WOULD NOT FARM THESE WOULD YOU?”_

**whiirrrr clink!**

“No, not to eat-I mean monsters used to ride camels in the desert, at least the ones in Necropolis did. I like the horseless chariots plenty, no offense Papyrus, but a camel would be more my speed.”

 

As Sobek said that the camel that had been grazing walked up to the one paying with the tube and bit it. The bitten camel galloped away back to the edge of the fence.”

 

“Oh do not worry smaller camel, you are my favorite.”

 

_“THAT ONE IS A FEMALE NAMED ZAHARA.”_

“Ah a camel named shining flower. Heh, what a name for a camel! I wonder if she is magical?”

 

Zahara did not seem particularly filled with magical aura to Sans, but he supposed maybe she was graceful for a camel? More importantly it seemed to really help Sobek.

***

After taking pictures with the camels the group admired the lions, and the zebra. The walking was starting to take a toll on Sobek, who was happy enough at exhibits, but seemed to worsen when walking. The Mummy man seemed to enjoy getting lost in the exhibits, so the group sat still and spent an hour watching the demonstration on how the zookeepers hid food in toys throughout the elephant enclosure.

 

Papyrus was very happy to see a few leftover pumpkins from Halloween were also hidden everywhere. The tall skeleton smiled at the human puzzles, although he and Nile had many improvements. After the zookeepers finished, the elephants charged in and had fun getting food out of the puzzles.

 

“NYEH HEH HEH THESE ARE ALL PRETTY EASY PUZZLES THOUGH, I MEAN THE ZOOKEEPERS DO NOT EVEN HIDE ANY WITH ICE BLOCKS!”

 

“uh, bro, the humans are trying to conserve elephants in a habitat, not cryogenically freeze them, heh heh.”

 

***

 

The group had fun wandering the rest of the zoo.

 

“OOH LOOK AT THE BABY BABOONS. ADORABLE!”

 

The tiny baboon clung to its mother who carried it around the enclosure to a pumpkin to eat.

 

“huh, so are baboons ancestors to humans? and i guess mummies and skeletons?”

 

 

“I think sort of. I mean they look similar.”

 

“…Well…they have the same general shape as us…”

 

“imagine grillbz, a flaming monkey, your ancestor.”

 

“…as hilarious as that is…I feel like a volcano is more realistic…”

 

“WHY DO YOU HAVE A HUMAN SHAPE THEN?”

 

“…well I can be more blob-like…but I suppose even as a child most firelings take an upright form with arms and legs…hmm…”

 

Grillby lost his form a bit for a second and tried to be a little smaller like a baboon…no… that did not feel as natural.

 

“…hmmm…maybe most fire-monsters today have some ancestors that are from other monsters too….that is why we are upright?… maybe not Vulcins?...”

 

_“OH LOOK THE OTHER BABOONS ARE WRESLING! AWWW”_

Two monkeys were…hugging.

“uh…maybe that is not what they are doing.”

 

_“OH COME ON, WHAT ELSE ARE THEY DOING?”_

 

“…I think… that is how animals repopulate without sharing souls…”

 

Nile turned so green she could have been mistaken for a zombie.

 

***

 

Sans smiled at the tortoise.

 

“ok, forget hermit crabs, maybe this could be our new favorite animal?”

 

“…You do not walk that slowly Sans…”

 

After watching the tortoise chew lettuce for ten minutes Sans and Grillby decided to stick to hermit crabs.

 

***

At the tiger pen Grillby’s flame was burning lowly and making a fizzing noise. Sans and Grillby leaned into each other.

 

“………”

 

“what’s that grillbabe, cat got your tongue?...”

 

One tiger was licking its crotch. The other was rolling around in the dirt hugging a pumpkin.

 

“……..”

 

“so, uh, remind you of your ex, still.”

 

“…my dad said these were majestic…majestic my fiery …one of them reminds me of the ex…”

 

“uh let me guess, not the pumpkin one?”

 

“…let’s just say he was only good at helping himself…”

 

Sans and Grillby laughed in each others arms.

 

At this point Sobek was shaking violently and had resorted to stacking coins in his palm. There were a few exhibits left, but the group decided to head to the exit.

 

 

***

The group exited towards the Sunbear exhibit. The enormous bear was happily munching on its own large leftover pumpkin, digging its paws and muzzle greedily into the fruit.

 

 

“HUH THIS REMINDS ME OF THAT NEIGHBOR OF OURS IN SNOWDEN. ALTHOUGH HE WAS MUCH MORE POLITE THAN THIS GUY, HE WAS THE HOT DOG EATING CHAMPION OF SNOWDEN.”

 

Next to the Sunbear were Muntjak, adorable tiny deer the size of a small dog, with tiny little horns that pranced around on tiny little legs.

 

 

“grillbabe-are you thinking what i am thinking

 

“…I think so…”

 

“maybe these are our new favorite surface animal.”

 

“…I completely agree…I am glad my dad was right about these guys…”

 

Sans and Grillby took about thirty pictures of muntjak eating grass.

 

A muntjak started making a high pitched yap.

 

“the indian muntjak are also known as the barking deer.”

 

Grillby and Sans squeed with happiness, and Sans took another ten pictures.

 

“SANS, YOU REALIZE THAT THE CAMERA CANNOT CAPTURE SOUND?”

 

“relax papyrus. it’s no big-”

 

Sobek looked very very shaky.

 

“um, well, we should head out, you want me to shortcut back to the police station with sobek and nile?”

 

“SANS!”

 

“look, my abilities are fine now. and grillby and i have been doing it plenty.”

 

“JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE GRILLBY ARE DOING IT DOES NOT MEAN OTHERS WANT TO DO IT WITH YOU!”

 

Grillby smiled,

 

“…It has been fine…besides sans has been breaking up long jumps now…”

 

“OK, BUT WHY NOT MYSELF AND SOBEK? GRILLBY COULD DRIVE THE CAR BACK TO THE RESTURAUNT?”

 

“Actually, Sans…Could you just take me back alone, and perhaps help me and Kuk to the surface entrance? I had a lovely day out with you all. It was nice to-”

 

**whirrrr clink**

 

“Get to see my dear Nile and get to know Rus- Papyrus and his family. But if Ammit is waiting at home than it is better for Nile and Papyrus to not be there after yesterday’s excitement.”

 

Sobek frowned sadly, but it was true. Nile looked sad for a second, but also relieve. She smiled at her father,

 

_“OOH LUCKY YOU FATHER! I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO TRY SANS TRANSPORT METHOD, BUT HE WAS SICK EARLIER THIS YEAR. I ALSO HAD FUN WITH YOU, TODAY. BEFORE YOU GO, I HAVE AN EARLY GYFTMAS GIFT FOR YOU.”_

“Oh Nile, dear, you do not have to get anything for an old yellow bandaged mummy like me!”

 

_“PAPYRUS AND HIS FRIEND, UNDYNE PICKED IT OUT! IT WILL HELP REFILL SOME MAGIC. HERE”_

Nile handed Sobek a tiny present she had kept in her purse, wrapped in just tissue paper so Sobek would not have trouble with it. He shakily unfolded the gold tissue paper to find a flat bone-colored white circular shell, with five slanted holes in it, and a pretty curved star design.

 

Sobek carefully held the delicate shell and was surprised that as he held it he could pocket the other coins. He sighed as a tiny bit of yellow flush came back to his face, not enough to fully stop the shaking but enough to help.

 

“IT IS CALLED A SAND DOLLAR. UM, PERHAPS IT CAN HELP WITH THE TOMB CURSE, WE ARE NOT SURE, BUT IT WILL AT LEAST GIVE YOU A BIT OF MAGIC.”

 

Sobek looked happy to just be stroking the sand dollar instead of clinking coins in his hands,

 

“Oh, Nile and Papyrus, it is beautiful. But I am worried I will drop it. And, if I do not drop it that Ammit dear will toss it into a wall once she realizes it refills my magic a bit.”

 

_“I THOUGHT OF THAT! INSIDE THE SHELL IS A SURPRISE, SO IF IT BREAKS, IT WILL NOT BE RUINED! “_

“Heh, heh a surprise? Well, I love surprises, but hopefully it can be a secret for a while. ugggghhh” Sobek stretched his arms out in front of him, his sockets creaked with the effort.

 

Sobek hugged Nile and Papyrus. Nile copied her dad’s outstretched hug, although she giggled instead of moaned, and then to Sans and Grillby’s surprise Sobek hugged them, too, before pulling his groceries out of the car.

 

“Sorry, I hope you don’t mind a traditional mummy hug.”

 

“OK SANS! TAKE CARE OF SOBEK! NO RECKLESS SHORTCUTS!”

 

“sure thing bro, but you better take care of grillby. no speeding.”

 

Papyrus frowned but nodded.

 

Sans linked up with Sobek,

 

“ok, so let’s do a little jump to start off, ready?”

 

***

 

Sans very carefully took Sobek to a gas station in between the zoo and police,

 

“ok, was that alright?”

 

Sobek, was shaking a bit, but was smiling. The coin in his head was rolling around the whole skull in a loop, de loop-Sans watched it flit past each eye as Sobek laughed,

 

**whirr clink**

**whiiiirrrrr**

 

“That was so…thrilling. It is like I left myself behind! I feel…light as air.”

 

“heh, good to hear! not every monster likes the sensation! heh, heh, well how about a bigger jump?”

 

“Ok, but let me try jumping while we do it?”

 

“sure but why?”

 

“It might get to be the last fun thing I get to do for a while.”

 

Sobek posed ready to try a jump and Sans short-cutted Sobek to the police station.

 

After the heroic jump, the mummy man smiled. His smile tuned into a frown as he entered the building. Sans went to a bench and waited while Kuk was released. Dogaressa was in the station and chatted with him while he munched on a few ketchup packets.

 

Sobek towered over the human police officers, so when he approached the desk, the man and woman behind it crossed their arms and stood to full height.

 

The large male human resembled a doughy pale gorilla, and the smaller tan skinned female human looked like she could take on Undyne and win. Sobek gulped.

 

Poor Sobek tried to politely ask to pay his son’s bail. The human police were a bit stern, their eyes glaring at the mummy-and poor Sobek’s hands were shaking like crazy as he placed the gold coins on the table.

 

“Uh, Look we accept cash…not coins.” The policeman at the front desk frowned.

 

“Uhhh…uhhh….Look, I am sorry I…I am just so worried about my son.”

 

The policewoman frowned and relaxed a bit. She looked a bit moved, but this was her job,

 

“Look we close in an hour, you can just come back for your son tomorrow. Nothing bad will happen except that he has to eat kind of lousy meals and sleep on a bench.”

 

Oh crap, no one had brought Sobek to the bank.

 

The mummy man started to shake a bit, his bones rattling. Sans stood up and walked to him, but Dogaressa beat him to it.

 

“Not a problem, woof. I suspected he might just bring gold. Some of the older monsters don’t know about the conversion yet. Let’s see, BARK! I have cash, and I’ll trade you the $500 for…uh hold on Woof! I am so bad at math.”

 

Dogaressa got a tiny calculator out and tapped the buttons slowly with her claws,

 

“let’s see I will take, hmm, one coin from you.”

 

“Wait, Dogaressa, how much are those coins worth?” The policewoman next to her had her eye’s go wide.

 

“Well, woof! Each one converts to about $800 surface dollars. So I actually owe this monster here another $300.00 to make it even.”

 

The policeman also looked shocked, he uncrossed his arms. Sobek looked even more shocked…he had vases full of coins…was $500 a small amount of human money?

 

Doagaressa handed him the strange green cloth-paper and he rolled it into his pouch.

 

The policeman tried to stand up at straight as possible to look the towering Sobek in the eye,

 

“Look here sir, you should not carry that much money on you, it is dangerous!”

 

Sobek was still a bit stunned, but nodded,

 

“Ah, of course. I am sorry my son caused so much trouble. I was not sure what the penalty would be.”

 

“Well, do not worry sir, as long as he comes to his trial on time, you will get your deposit back.” The male officer smiled a bit and talked with Dogaressa for a minute.

 

The once-gruff male officer frowned and helped Sobek sit down while Dogaressa and the policewoman filed some paperwork.

 

***

 

The process took longer than Sans had anticipated, it was almost closing when the final bit of paperwork was signed.

 

In the meantime, Sobek had managed to befriend the entire police station, who were curious about the polite giant mummy man. Sobek put up with their questions in good humor:

 

“So you are 500 years old! Wow! Tell me what do you eat to stay well?”

 

“Oh well lot’s of calcium-good for the bones! Although my wife insists I need to eat more canned vegetables…now that we have access to the surface I hope we have more to eat than canned spinach. ”

 

“I’m with ya there buddy!” Officer Keller hated spinach.

 

“So you don’t eat humans? Or use us to return to a human state by stealing out life force and organs?”

 

“First, that would be barbaric. Secondly, I prefer not having any organs to worry about, do you know what are inside those things? Euughh.”

 

“So do you sleep in a crypt or a tomb?

 

“Well, that’s a bit personal don’t you think? I have a lovely bed in my house. You know I built the house myself? Anyway, the bed even has a pillow! But I do not sleep too often.”

 

“So were you buried in Egypt?”

 

“No, I have never been to Egypt, but I suppose my great-great-great grandfather was from there. No-no, when my wife and I did the wedding burial ceremony it was Underground. We couldn’t even get any sand! Where do you humans do your wedding ceremonies? In Egypt?”

The talk then got started on how an Egyptian wedding would be exciting, and how Sobek was hoping Nile and Papyrus would consider it if the travel restrictions let up.

 

Sans smiled, he was glad Sobek liked Papyrus enough.

 

****

 

“HAhaha, and that is why you should never disturb a sleeping mummy!”

 

The front desk erupted with laughter and woofs.

 

Another police officer came by, leading out a slumped Kuk in handcuffs. The mummy sadly stepped out, dressed in his Halloween costume, and looking incredibly embarrassed as his father shook his head at him.

 

“Now look young man, you need to be better behaved, your poor father was so worried about you.” Another policewoman who had been laughing with Sobek chided Kuk, who nodded and slumped further.

 

Kuk was released on bail, and told to come back in a week for sentencing.

 

Kuk, Sans, and Sobek left the station. Sobek was gently holding the shell Nile had given him-and his hands were still, but his legs shook.

 

“Oh Kuk. we have a lot to talk about, son. Thankfully Sans here has offered to take us home with his magic, despite what happened.”

 

**“With his magic? Isn’t that dangerous?”**

 

“Do not be ridiculous Kuk, it is very fun!”

 

Kuk looked at his father dubiously, but decided that he was already going to get an ear socket full of lecturing, and should just deal.

 

“so i can take you to the one part of little necropolis i’ve been to. if you let me follow you to your place i can pick you up directly if you need it.”

 

“Good thinking. Besides Ammit will eventually want to visit once Nile and Papyrus have monsterlings-”

 

**“Once they WHAT?”**

 

Sans was pretty sure that was not immediately going to happen but decided that he enjoyed the look of shock on Kuk’s face.

Before Kuk could process that information, Sans grabbed his arm, and Sobek’s,

 

“hold tight.”

 

****

The three were in Little Necropolis, near a playground with monkey bars and some swings.

 

Kuk looked surprised, but alright from the jump.

 

“sorry if it isn’t close, but it’s the only place i clearly remember that i want to jump too.”

 

“Ah, Sorry for the trouble Sans you probably do not wasn’t to be here.”

 

“ah, it’s ok, which way to your place?”

 

Kuk supported his father and gave directions. Sans took the time to look around at the houses shaped like coffins and ghosts, and one super cool pirate house. He couldn’t remember what the old house looked like, but he was curious, perhaps he could ask Sobek-but did he really want to?

 

The houses were changing from more apartment-like to more family style, with more and more with nice front yards. Well nice front yards for underground…Some even had trees imported from Snowden a few already decorated for Gyftmas, although the decorations were a bit spookier than in Snowden.

 

“Heh, I built some of these houses, you know!” Sobek pointed out several homes he had done, and Kuk even meekly pointed out one he and his brother had done some repair work on last week.”

 

**Whiiirr clink.**

 

**Whiiirr clink.**

 

“This one ghoul! He was so picky I had to replace the window four times to a new location! I mean, he paid for each alteration, but really it was quite unreasonable-he ended up putting it where I had suggested in the beginning!”

 

**Whiiirr clink.**

 

**Whiiirr clink.**

 

“And then this one lich-woman-uhh Sans you don’t know this but some Liches are so snobby. I told her she could not cut down the rare fox pine and tiny oak tree she had- I mean do you know how much a squirrel monster would pay for an oak tree? And how few Fox pines there are Underground? She hired a specialist to agree the fox tree was sick…Oh I carefully rescued the oak though, and that is how we got the tree in our front yard! But that poor pine got turned into planks.”

 

**Whiiirr clink.**

**Whiiirr clink.**

 

**“We just built a house over there a swimming pool. The family are ghosts, so they just float into it. Says it is good for the ectoplasm.”**

 

Sans enjoyed talking with Sobek, and even a little talking to Kuk. It was weird…the necrotics who he had mostly envisioned as crazy Zhurg worshipping freaks, seemed to have a pretty mundane life. He felt a little bad about it- I mean, Sobek was cool, and Apple and Zostra were alright. Kuk might even be able to turn over a new leaf.

 

Then again, Nile’s Mom sounded like a piece of work. And what did Sobek mean about them attempting to seal her magic? And how could Sans forget his own father?

 

The group kept walking.

 

*********

 

**whiiirr ka-kling**

Sobek tilted his head.

 

“Hold on Sans.”

 

Sans stopped walking with Sobek.

 

“Um. I am thinking Ammit dearest may not be in the best mood. I would like to invite you in for a bit for some tea or something, but I would also prefer if my whole family is not arrested in one weekend. Um, can I-can I invite you to our home another day? Our house is the one on the end of the street, with the wrapped pillars?”

 

Sobek’s face had some yellow magical sweat bead pouring down it.

 

 

Sans had a feeling it was something else, but smiled at Sobek.

 

“yeah, no problem, i can always meet you here on the corner. it was nice getting to know you sobek. and, uh, kuk, maybe. well maybe we can try again sometime. just try to talk to nile from now on, you know, she doesn’t seem like she would keep a secret under wraps.”

 

Sobek gave Sans one last mummy hug and Kuk tried to smile.

 

Sans was gone in a flash.

 

“Kuk, while I have you supporting me, can we take a quick detour to the end of the street?”

 

***************

Sobek’s eye glowed bright yellow. Kuk’s eyesockets stared at the ground as he stood by the worn wooden mailbox, but another pair of red eyes stared back through the door Sobek had knocked on.

 

“So Horus, I met your sons…how could you do that to them?”

 

The door slammed shut and Sobek shuffled home slowly.

 


	47. Onyx

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was a harder one to write.

Sobek shooed Kuk to his room and walked into the kitchen to be met with the gaze of his angry wife.

 

Ammit narrowed her eyes at her husband. A collection of medium sized bone attacks whizzed past his head to hit the wall.

 

 

“Sobek WHERE have you been? I have been searching all of the Underground for you! I even went to the castle!”

 

Sobek, who despite the bone attacks was smiling and walking into the kitchen hummed a tune before answering,

 

**Whirr clink**

**Whiiir clink**

**“** Relax my little tomb flower, I was simply retrieving our youngest son from the surface.”

 

“THE SURFACE! SOBEK! You could DUST from the exertion!”

 

“Well, I admit it was exerting, but if some-monster had not convinced our son that Nile was under a spell…maybe I would not have had to get him out of the human dungeon.”

 

“Well, she clearly is! She has never disobeyed us before by dat- wait human dungeon? HUMAN DUNGEON?”

 

Sobek put the shopping bag on the table and hummed.

 

**Whirr clink**

**Whiiir clink**

 

“Yes, Kuk called me while you were out. He attacked Papyrus and ended up being imprisoned. He has a trial in a week so I will have to accompany him again. It seems like they are just going to put him on probation and have him help in the human community. Perhaps you would like to come?”

 

“OUR SON is indentured to humans and you want me to come to the surface to hand him over on a silver platter?”

 

“No, no, Ammit-dearest. He is not indentured. The officers explained that he likely will just help pick up garbage by the roadside for so many hours and then his sentence will be over. worst case he will pay a fine for brawling in public. But if he does not cooperate he will probably get a harsher sentence, and be imprisoned for a year. I am upset that he is in trouble, too, but what do you expect when one fights in public?”

 

**Whirr clink**

**Whiiir clink**

 

“Now, about that nonsense about Nile being under a spell-she is not. Papyrus’ magic is not like that dearest. She is simply in love.”

 

“IN LOVE! They met for like a day! And then she ran off!”

 

“Well, perhaps if we had not scared her away with curses she could have stayed here?”

 

It was unusual for Sobek to get up from his table and even more unusual for him to glare at his wife-sparks of yellow filling his sockets. Ammit’s angry glowing blue eyes faded for a second and for once she had nothing to say.

 

Sobek got out the watermelon and dates from earlier and started to cut them up.

 

Ammit suddenly shook her head. Wait? Why was Sobek able to cut melon?

 

“Your hands are not shaking, dear.” Ammit smiled a genuine smile.

 

**Whirr clink**

**Whiiir clink**

Was he actualy doing better?

**Whirr clink**

**Whiiiiiiiir riiiing.**

 

“I suppose not, dear Ammit. Now…before the curse gets me again, let us have some of this melon and talk about our children.”

 

**Whirr clink**

**Whiiir clink**

 

*****

 

Sans popped back home to find Grillby, Papyrus, and Nile had made dinner-Asgore what had Sans done to deserve living with three other monsters that could cook? I mean Sans could cook if he had to, but there was a snowballs chance in the core that he would ever do something like this for himself.

 

“…Yay…Sans is her0oe… Let’s eat!...”

 

Grillby looked pretty hungry, his mouth was a very loose and jagged fiery line and his flames were low and steady. Sans realized that the group had skipped proper lunch, and on top of it, despite Grillby doing most of the breakfast cooking, the elemental had probably only gotten a few bites in.

 

Grillby had made chicken enchiladas, while Papyrus had made some rice and beans, and Nile had made cucumber and lemon salad.

 

There were also probably fifty multi colored macarons for dessert in the center of the table. Sans tossed a macaron into Grillby’s hungry mouth. The elemental smiled as his flame turned from cherry red to yellow for a second.

 

“..o0oo…” Grillby smiled for a second. Sans did not need to understand Old Fire to know that meant ‘yumm.”

 

 

“…I feel like my flames are going to go ooOout… do you guys mind if I eat more naturally?...”

 

“hey, grillbz, just eat however is most comfortable.”

 

“GUESTS SHOULD ALWAYS FEEL RELAXED!”

 

Everyone took their portion. Nile took a dainty bite of carefully cut enchilada. Papyrus took a hearty bite of cucumber. Sans was still picking up his fork. Grillby ignored his fork and knife and brought the plate to his head at mouth level.

 

Grillby then proceeded to move the entire paper plate into his head and burn it up.

 

The other monsters tried not to stare, but they totally did.

 

“…Ahhh…I love paper plates…sorry about that…it is rather embarrassing to eat like that…or to eat elemental foods…in front of friends…”

 

Sans looked at Grillby his eye sockets wide,

 

“grillby, i don’t mind, its really no problem. i hope you don’t mind me saying it is really neat the way your flame eats up the plate. you know, i can make sure we stock up on some fire monster foods. what sort of things do you like? i mean i know you like vodka, popcorn, and pinecones, and i guess you ate a log once.”

 

“…ugh… it was a gross log…it had some sort of mushroom on it…”

 

“OH NO, DO YOU NOT LIKE MY FUTTUCCINE AL FUNGI WITH ALFREDO?”

 

“…Oh…um…no…I love mushrooms…that are not toxic…and Sans… you know I love burgers and fries…and sugary things…I never had them often growing up…since it is healthier for me to eat fire food…but… I am embarrassed to say I really like junk food…which for me is stuff that burns up quickly…”

 

“so basically everything we eat, even this, is junk food for you?”

 

“…I mean if it burns slowly and has no water it is healthy…uh…like broccoli but….dried…and um… dehydrated vegetables in general…spaghetti is alright but I should try to eat it with less water…”

 

“UMM, GRILLBY WE DO NOT NORMALLY TRY TO SERVE DEHYDRATED VEGETABLES OR UNCOOKED PASTA NOODLES! I AM SORRY FOR NOT ASKING.”

 

”…No, do not concern yourself …”

 

“no, i should have asked.”

 

“YOU ARE RIGHT, I AM SORRY SANS NEVER ASKED.” Papyrus stuck a rare magical tongue out at Sans.

 

“…No, I am young…I can burn up a bit of pesky moisture…it is a fun sensation…as long as it is a net gain of energy it does not matter what I eat…”

 

“hmm. look grillbz, i am not exactly a paradigm of health choices, but i at least try to drink milk and get vegetables more than once a week. i am pretty sure you’d live off fries and alcohol if you could.”

 

“…Well…I mean…I can…”

 

Sans stared intently at Grillby, and Grillby felt his dietary sins crawling down his back.

 

“…I keep my magic up…”

 

Sans continued to stare at Grillby.

 

“…look…I keep my minimum temperature …of…well…eight hundred degrees Celsius…”

 

“ahem. minimum temperature?”

 

A now red and blushing blue Grillby guiltily ate another plate,

 

“…Um…well…I should never really hit red like this…my range is supposed to be more yellow…average temperature one thousand three hundred Celcius…”

 

Sans looked worried,

 

“but, you have been red-orange all month. i think the only time i saw you mostly yellow was in death valley. i-um. i do not want to be overbearing but…uh…you could hurt yourself…”

 

Nile and Papyrus caught each other’s eye sockets and hastily started munching up the rest of their enchiladas and salad.

 

“… Um…well…I would not mind being more yellow-orange…perhaps…if you are worried I could try not straining my magic so much… I…I suppose could try and eat more wood at least...and maybe try drinking olive oil or gasoline instead of alcohol at least once a day…”

 

Grillby still refused to eat the gross kindling Magmus sent him. Magmus had told him he found the sticks while on a walk in the woods and some of them were covered in lichens *ewww.* He could be on his deathbed and pass up whatever wood that was.

 

Grillby realized he was making a horribly ugly face thinking about the wood, but despite this Sans’ eye sockets were lit with happiness. Damn. That was adorable. Sans smiled so wide that Grillby could not help but smile back,

 

“so then, what is your favorite types of wood?” Sans figured he could learn how to cut lumber.

 

“…Well…I grew up Underground…and we only had Pine commercially available, and rarely oak branches…but those were expensive…Since coming to the surface…I think I tried some cedar wood from my parents…and I…um tried…oak wood…wow I have been up almost a year and I have not tried much have I?...”

 

Grillby sighed,

 

“Um…I guess it would be fun to _branch out_ …”

 

“heh heh heh”

 

“grillby, let’s _stick_ to this new diet idea. i’ll help you go shopping tomorrow! you can try some surface stuff. we can make a _log_ of all the new stuff you try. and i can go on a diet too.”

 

Papyrus’ eyes got big as his surprise overwhelmed his dislike for awful puns. What happened to the snail of a brother he knew and mocked?

 

“…Oh my Asgore…a new diet _before_ Gyftmas?…you really do not have to join me…”

 

“nope!. you can’t _leaf_ me out of this. i want to learn to make you at least one hearty meal.”

 

“…Ok…my mother had an old family poem about what type of surface wood was good… I will ask her for it tonight…and some recipes…and maybe I can start working out again…I think I worked out…once this year… Maybe I can finally reach melting and Scandium or Palladium if I get into shape…do not tell other elementals but those are my limits…”

 

 

******************

The monsters finished dinner and made a small dent into the macaron population.

“…So…Sans…um…I should call my mother…about surface wood…can I chat in your room?...” Grillby wanted to give San some time alone with Papyrus.

 

Sans nodded and Grillby squeezed his hand.

 

“sure thing.”

 

“…thanks sans…”

 

Grillby gave Sans’ hand one more squeeze and snuck upstairs. Nile also went upstairs to do some woodcarving, giving Papyrus a quick hug. Heh, it was nice to see Papyrus so happy with another monster. He had been one of those very awkward teenagers and had never dated before. Sans shuddered thinking of Papyrus’ short lived fedora stage. He had come a long way.

 

Then again Sans had not exactly been a charmer in high school either.

 

Papyrus realized he was alone with Sans and sunk into the couch, looking like he might merge with it. Unfortunately for the tall skeleton their couch did not have the right type of cushions for sinking into. Even at his sulkiest Sans had never made much of a dent in them.

“you know paps, nile is really nice. and her dad is a pretty uh, rad dude.”

 

Papyrus’ eyes lit up a second.

 

“NYEH HEH, THANKS SANS, AM ENJOYING GETTING TO KNOW SOBEK TOO, AND IT MEANS A LOT THAT YOU ARE GETTING ALONG WITH NILE AND HER FAMILY!”

 

“well, why wouldn’t i? you two are like a fibula and a tibia. ‘sides you are nothing but nice to me and grillbz and his folks.”

 

“WHY WOULD I NOT BE? FAMILY AND FRIENDS ARE IMPORTANT. AND YOU AND GRILLBY ARE AN AMAZING COUPLE!”

 

“heh thanks.” Sans smiled, but then sighed.

 

“UH, YEAH.” Papyrus sighed,

 

“SO, TO BE DIRECT…”

 

Papyrus paused, his eyebrows narrowed and his hand clenched,

 

“I AM SORRY SANS…I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO TELL YOU ALL WEEK. I JUST-I FIGURED I WOULD TELL YOU AT THE END OF YOUR CONFERENCE, AND THEN AFTER HALLOWEEN…AND I-I JUST COULD NOT FIND THE WORDS TO SAY.”

“papyrus, it is ok, take your time.” Sans also attempted to sink into the couch.

 

“OK, SO I STARTED BY JUST ASKING FOR THE FULL MEDICAL AND GENERAL INFORMATION OF OUR MOTHER. I FIGURED IF-UM.”

 

Papyrus turned very bright orange.

 

“UM.”

 

“uh, because you were curious?”

 

“WELL, YES. BUT ALSO UM, NILE AND I WERE UH WORRIED WE MIGHT HAVE…UM”

 

Papyrus continued to turn bright orange.

Sans decided to throw Papyrus a bone,

 

“you might need to know more about your health history. papyrus, i have always been very proud of how health conscious of a monster you are! you are definitely gonna live to a thousand!”

“ER, YES. NILE AND I ARE HEALTH CONSCIOUS. WORKING OUT… AND STUFF. YES. WELL UM, ANYWAY, I OBVIOUSLY FOUND OUT OUR MOTHER’S NAME WAS ONYX AND NILE AND APPLE ASKED AROUND AND WELL, APPLE’S MOTHER KNEW A GHOUL WHO KNEW AN ONYX AND WHO HAD BEEN ASKING ABOUT US. THE GHOUL LADY GAVE ME THESE.”

 

Papyrus opened his loot pouch and picked out three pictures. The color pictures looked like they were from an older camera, with weird saturations and bright spots not edited out. The first picture was of a young skeleton woman standing with a Ghoul lady in the capitol. She looked quite a lot like Sans- her smooth head was the same shape, and she was very short, to the point where Sans wondered if he was taller. She had done the same thing Apple had done, taped earrings to the side of her skull, Sans wondered if it was a skeleton lady thing. She was smiling and leaning against the Ghoul-lady, wearing a nice new red scarf-the one that Papyrus now wore.

 

The second picture had Onyx in a wedding dress standing in front of a mirror. She looked pretty, and had a small bouquet of yellow flowers, probably the same type as the ones in the ruins. She was not smiling.

 

The third picture was in a hospital, and she was holding a tiny Papyrus bundled in a pink hospital blanket. A young Sans, wearing a tiny t-shirt that declared “monster trucks!” was peering at his new brother and showing him a tiny truck toy. Papyrus looked uninterested.

 

Sans smiled.

 

“heh, paps, look at the memories, if only i had known i only had a few more years of height advantage…”

 

“NYEH HEH HEH, WELL SANS, IF ONLY I HAD KNOWN YOU LIKED TRUCKS SO MUCH, WE COULD HAVE GOTTEN ONE INSTEAD OF A SPORTS CAR.”

 

“heh, thanks, but i think that was just a phase. so this ghoul lady, what was she like?”

 

Papyrus frowned.

 

“SHE WAS VERY NICE, HER NAME IS CASSANDRIA AND SHE GREW UP NEXT TO OUR MOM. THEY WERE MONSTERLING FRIENDS, AND THEY USED TO GO SHOPPING TOGETHER AND STUFF LIKE THAT. SHE TOLD ME THAT ONCE OUR MOM STARTED DATING OUR DAD, SHE SAW HER LESS OFTEN. SHE THINKS HE DID NOT LET HER LEAVE THE HOUSE MUCH. THE LAST TIME SHE SAW HER IN PERSON WAS AT THE WEDDING, BUT THEY TALKED ON THE PHONE FOR YEARS AFTER THAT.”

 

“so, uh. that is pretty shitty of dad. did she say what mom was like?”

 

“CASSANDRIA SAID THAT THEY WOULD TALK FOR HOURS ON THE PHONE AND THAT SHE ALSO APPARENTLY…LIKED STUPID PUNS.”

 

Sans eyes lit up.

 

“YES, SO PUNS IS A HERIDITORY PROBLEM I SUPPOSE. SHE SAID ONYX WAS REALLY CREATIVE AND THAT SHE LIKED DANCING AND ART. CASANDRIA SHOWED ME A PAINTING ONYX HAD MADE, A NICE FLOWER MEADOW, IT IS AMAZING NYEH HEH HEH. I LIKED IT SO MUCH, AND, UM, SHE GAVE IT TO ME ACTUALLY, I HUNG IT IN MY ROOM, BUT IF YOU LIKE IT, WE CAN MOVE IT TO THE LIVINGROOM?”

 

“heh, sure paps! so, um, it might be kind of sudden, but, uh, i kind of want to meet her now. does cassandria still know her, could we arrange to meet with her?”

 

Papyrus looked down.

 

“SO, CASSANDRIA TOLD ME THAT ONYX HAD REALLY LOW HP, ONLY TEN! SHE HAD TO BE CAREFUL NOT TO OVEREXERT HERSELF. SHE DID NOT HAVE THE TYPE OF MAGIC YOU DO SANS, WHERE SHE COULD SHORTCUT AWAY FROM DANGER. IN FACT, SHE COULD NOT EVEN DO BONE ATTACKS.”

 

Papyrus smiled,

 

“BUT, UH SANS I HAVE MOST COOL NEWS! SHE COULD SUMMON A BLASTER! CASSANDRIA SAYS DESPITE BEING OTHERWISE BAD AT MAGIC, SHE COULD SUMMON A CAT SKULL WITH GREEN EYES! BUT, SHE ONLY TOLD CASSADRA AND HER PARENTS. HER PARENTS WERE FINE WITH MAGIC THOUGH, AND LET HER SUMMON IT INDOORS. ONYX HAD TO BE CAREFUL PLAYING WITH IT THOUGH... IF SHE LOST HP SHE WOULD HAVE TO STAY HOME FOR LONG PERIODS OF TIME.”

 

Sans eyes went dark.

 

“you keep saying was and had.”

 

Sans started to tear up. papyrus did, too.

 

“SO, SHE WAS SOULBROKEN AFTER PUTTING US AWAY FOR ADOPTION. WE WERE RIGHT, OUR DAD HATED THAT WE HAD MAGIC. CASSANDRIA TOLD US, SHE DID IT BECAUSE OUR DAD STARTED JUST ANGRY ABOUT IT, BUT EVENTUALLY TURNED VIOLENT. EVENTUALLY, HE HIT YOU A FEW TIMES. I AM SORRY SANS.”

Papyrus hated the monster who looked so much like him…who apparently had no problem hitting his own monsterling…ugh.

 

“i barely remember, bro.”

 

Papyrus continued,

 

“ONYX’S HP BEGAN TO DROP AROUND THAT TIME, TO SEVEN AND THEN FIVE. THIS MADE OUR DAD EVEN MORE FRANTIC ABOUT NOT LETTING US USE DANGEROUS MAGIC, AND IT MEANT THAT ONYX COULD NOT DEFEND US. SO SHE FELT LIKE SHE HAD NO CHOICE. ONYX AND…OUR FATHER…HAD NO OTHER FAMILY, AND CASSANDRIA COULD NOT AFFORD TO TAKE US.”

 

Papyrus was now crying big orange teardrops,

 

“SO, UM, HER CONDITION GOT WORSE AND SHE DROPPED TO TWO HP. SHE WAS STABLE THERE FOR A FEW YEARS, ALTHOUGH SHE WAS UPSET. A FEW YEARS LATER SHE WAS PREGNANT, WITH ANOTHER MONSTERLING… HORUS WANTED TO TRY AGAIN. BUT SHE WAS TOO WEAK. AND SHE UM, PASSED AWAY IN THE CAPITOL HOSPITAL A MONTH IN. CASSANDRIA, UM, WAS GIVEN A FEW THINGS THAT OUR MOTHER HAD WANTED TO GIVE US. SHE TOLD ME, THAT OUR FATHER HAD ALREADY SCATTERED HER ASHES. ASIDE FROM THE PAINTING THERE IS THIS BOX.”

 

“our father…ugh…she…”

 

Sans was tearing up, small blue magical teardrops.

Papyrus gave him a hug and the two let out a few tears. Sans had never known her, but well…he felt like a part of himself was missing.

 

“I-I AM SORRY IT IS NOT THE BEST NEWS. I-I WISH I HAD MET HER.”

 

Papyrus slid a box out form under the couch and lifted it onto his lap. It was a medium sized cardboard box, with bold, narrow writing. The font was small, but commanding.

 

“For Sans and Papyrus.”

 

“I HAVEN’T OPENED IT YET, I WANTED TO OPEN IT WITH YOU. UM, HERE, WAIT A MINUTE.”

*********************************

Papyrus ran up the stairs and into his room. As he opened the door, Sans could hear Nile’s light flute playing stop for a second. He looked up the stairs at this own room, flame colored light peaking out of it.

 

In a moment, Papyrus was back with the painting.

 

“UM, HERE SANS, DO YOU LIKE IT?”

 

Sans held the painting that was almost as big as him. It was an imagination of what the surface was like. There a green field filled with yellow and blue flowers on green hills. The trees were mythical looking, shaped rather like clovers or, like large green flowers, by someone who had never seen a proper picture of a tree. Still-the colors were beautiful, with a light blue sky with a large growing sun taking up most of it.

 

Sans let one more tear fall,

 

“she really would have liked to see the surface, huh?”

 

“I THINK SO, SANS.”

 

“i-i would really like it if we hang it somewhere special- maybe right here in the living room…”

Sans stood up and moved it to a spot behind the couch that could be seen from the kitchen and the front entrance. Sans then opened the front window curtain. A bit of sunlight shone on the painting, and it seemed to glow for just a second.

 

*******

Sans and Papyrus smiled and wiped away the tears.

 

The two moved the box to the dining room table, and nodded. Sans cut the tape open and Papyrus unfolded the sides.

 

The box was surprisingly full. Each brother took the objects out-

 

Inside was a small orange stuffed bunny monster with big floppy red ears and a fuzzy tail, the little toy truck from the photo-a blue truck with rubber spinning wheels, a tutu, a small music box, several photos, a small bone skull the size of a fist, some paint brushes, a small binder with papers, a pouch, and at the bottom an envelope sealed with a soul shaped sticker.

 

“IS IT OK, IF WE OPEN THE ENVELOPE FIRST?”

 

“yeah.”

 

Sans hands shook as he read,

 

“dear sans and papyrus,

i hope that despite how you feel about me, you read this letter. i love you with all my soul and bones, and am sorry for leaving you at the capitol steps. i wish i could find you again and take you somewhere where we could live together and be safe, but when i left you i barely had the strength for a short walk. cassandria told me that she checked, and you were being cared for, but it breaks my soul. i had wanted to meet with you once you were old enough-but i cannot leave bed now, and will fall soon.

cassandria sent me a picture of you both. sans! my little baby bones, i heard you are a research assistant at the core! at only seventeen! You are so smart- i wish i could say you take after me, but i am a bit of an artist-not much of a scientific mind. your grandpa would be proud though, he was an engineer who helped build parts of the capitol!”

 

“SANS! SHE WAS S PROUD OF YOU!”

 

Sans smiled, it felt nice to hear that,

 

“papyrus, i saw a picture of you! wow, you are so big and strong. i hope high school is going ok! i was told that you are in a lot of clubs, including a ballet club. i like to do ballet, too-well i used to. i would send you my point shoes but you are a little too big for them. it sounds like you are a very kind young monster.”

 

“she is proud of you too.”

 

“i hope that despite everything, you have grown into nice young monsters, but i can tell you are kind. i-hope you do not mind, but i wanted you two to have some things to remember me by. regrettably, i do not think horus will give them to you, so i have given them to cassandria. i told her to give them to you if you come looking, or once papyrus was twenty-five. i know that is rather old, but i want you to be older and able to handle it. i have made peace with your father, and while i do not expect you to love him or even love me, please do not let your soul fill with hate.“

 

Sans and Papyrus nodded silently. Sans figured it was best not to dwell on a man he would probably never see again.

 

“HUH, SO THAT IS WHY CASSANDRIA LOOKED SO RELIEVED WHEN I FOUND HER. SHE SAID SHE HAD NO IDEA WHERE WE HAD MOVED TO AFTER I GOT OUT OF HIGH SCHOOL. AND WELL, I TURN TWENTY FIVE THIS YEAR!”

 

“oh dang, paps you are so old now.”

 

“SANS! HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT YOU OLD BAG OF BONES! NYEH HEH HEH!”

 

“heh hehheh, if you say so,”

 

“so, let me tell you what is in the box-i know you will be grown monsters by the time you read this letter, but i wanted to give you each your favorite toys. maybe you can give them to your own little baby bones someday? sans, of course i gave you your favorite truck- it was your grandpas-he was sure you would become a builder! papyrus-this toy was once mine. it is a character called ‘fluffy bunny.’ i wrote in the letter to the capitol guards that it was your favorite book-i hope someone kept reading it to you. i also put my old tutu in the box. again, i doubt it will fit you papyrus, but maybe you could give it to your dance partner?”

 

Papyrus’ eyes welled up and he grabbed fluffy bunny to give it a hug.

 

“NYEH HEH HEH! MY VERY OWN FLUFFY BUNNY!”

 

The tutu technically fit, papyrus, but only because his hips were too narrow. He took it off, and put fluffy bunny on top of the tulle.

 

Sans picked up the truck. He had absolutely no memory of it but it was a cool toy. Heh, he smiled before reading more,

 

“some of the other items were ones that were precious to me. the jewelry box has an onyx necklace, an onyx ring, and a pair of matching earrings. They belonged to our ancestor great-great-great-great-great- great grandmother Myriad when she was on the surface, but they have been magically kept in shape. i know they would be worth a lot of gold, but I do not want horus to sell them. perhaps you would not mind giving them to a special monster someday? think of it as a wedding gift from me. since sans is the oldest, he can have the necklace and box and papyrus can have the earrings and ring. if you do not want to get married, please just enjoy them.”

 

“jewelry box?”

 

“OH, I THINK SHE MEANS THE MUSIC BOX?”

 

Papyrus carefully opened the music box. As he did so a twinkling melody played. Inside was an onyx ring, earrings, and a matching necklace.

 

The large pretty black stone was cut in a teardrop shape and set in silver. The earrings were cut to match. The ring was black stone; with an elegant square cut onyx.

 

“WOW!”

 

“wow. it was from the surface?”

 

Jewelry was extremely rare Underground. Not many monsters had had any when fleeing Underground and it took too much energy and skill for elementals to make it often. Monsters had tried mining little parts of the cave, but only towards the least habited areas, as a collapse would mean the death of Monster-kind. Rarely a peridot or a piece of something would be found and sold for a fortune. Re-melting metals that fell down from the human garbage made most jewelry.

 

“THAT IS PRETTY AMAZING!”

 

“well, paps, i mean, if you would like them, i mean, you know, nile would probably like it, um and grillby probably would not wear a necklace.”

 

Papyrus turned so orange Sans was pretty sure his brother was a citrus.

 

“SANS! WOW! THAT IS SO SWEET OF YOU…BUT, WELL, DO YOU THINK SHE WOULD MIND IF WE SPLIT IT UP A LITTLE BIT DIFFERENTLY? I MEAN, UM, YOU AND GRILLBY HAVE BEEN DATING LONGER, AND MAYBE YOU MIGHT WANT THE RING FOR SOMETHING?”

 

It was Sans turn to turn funny colors. Sans smiled and carefully picked up the ring.

 

 

“ok, but can we keep it a secret?”

“YES, HERE.”

 

Papyrus smiled and nodded, closing the jewelry box very carefully. Sans still looked really embarrassed.

 

“HOW ABOUT I READ THE NEXT BIT?”

 

“sure”

 

“I SAVED ALL YOUR DRAWINGS SANS, I-I DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU WOULD DO WITH THEM, BUT THEY MADE ME SO HAPPY! SANS, I HOPE YOU STILL LIKE ART, SO I SAVED YOU MY BRUSHES. I ALSO GAVE CASSANDRIA A PAINTING I MADE, I HOPE SHE SHOWS YOU!”

The folder had a bunch of pieces of paper with little crayon doodles on them. A tiny circle-blob with blue eyes and a larger circle-blob with green eyes were drawn riding what Sans guessed was the raft. Another drawing was a giant truck with Sans driving it through fire. A third was titled, ‘what mi cool little brather will look like.” A baby skeleton with a six pack and sunglasses was doing a backflip over a pit of fire.

 

“I CAN JUMP OVER GRILLBY IF YOU WANT.”

 

Sans poked Papyrus.

 

The brushes were nice and small. Ugh the last time he had painted something it had just been a still life of a bone attack…it was pretty awful, but Papyrus had hung it up in their hallway.

 

“I HAVE ALSO ATTACHED A FEW FAMILY PHOTOS. ONE IS OF ME AS A LITTLE SKELETON WITH YOUR GRANDPARENTS, WE WERE A SMALL FAMILY, AND THEY FELL BEFORE SANS WAS BORN. MY MOTHER LUCIDA WORKED AS A LIBRARIAN AND ACTUALLY HAD HAIR! MY FATHER PHOSPHATE WAS AN ENGINEER. THEY HAD ME WHEN THEY WERE BOTH VERY OLD; DESPITE MY POOR HEALTH THEY TOOK ME TO THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE UNDERGROUND. I EVEN GOT TO SEE ASGORE’S FLOWER GARDEN. I HOPE YOU SEE THOSE SOMEDAY! MOM AND DAD WOULD HAVE LOVED TO MEET YOU!”

 

The faded photo was in color, with a smiling young Onyx, and her two parents. Grandpa was a very short big boned skeleton, his faded bones had tiny pockmarks in them, and his eyes glowed a feint blue. Grandma was tall and thin, although she was hunched a bit, with almost triangular orange glowing eyes.

 

“THE OTHER PHOTO IS ONE OF ME USING MY MAGIC! I CANNOT SUMMON EVEN A BONE ATTACK, SO I WAS SURPRISED YOU BOYS BOTH INHERITED MY ONE POWER. I AM SO HAPPY YOU DID THOUGH, I ONLY WISH I COULD HAVE SHOWN YOU HOW TO USE IT. IT IS A RARE POWER FOR A NECROTIC. THEY SAY MANY GENERATIONS AGO SOMEONE MARRIED A GHAST THAT HAD THE POWER…BUT I WAS THE FIRST IN THE FAMILY FOR A FEW CENTURIES!”

 

Onyx was standing in a bedroom, with a tiny glowing green skull zooming around. The fist-sized skull looked more like a cat’s than a dog’s, and had smaller teeth-but the resemblance was amazing otherwise.

 

“I PUT THE LAST ONE I SUMMONED IN THE BOX, DID YOU KNOW YOU CAN KEEP THEM AROUND LIKE BONE ATTACKS? I DID NOT TILL I WAS OLDER. IT HELPED ME FROM FEELING BOENLY HAHA! ANYWAY THIS ONE’S NAME IS…GRUMPY. NOT THE FRIENDLIEST ONE I EVER SUMMONED, BUT I DO NOT HAVE THE MAGIC TO SUMMON ANOTHER. YOU ARE WELCOME TO RE-ANIMATE IT! YOU TWO COULD EACH LIGHT UP AN EYE.”

 

Sans and Papyrus stared at the skull. Sans carefully touched it-it was still strong.

 

“DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU COULD KEEP THEM LIKE BONE ATTACKS?”

 

“nope. had no idea, gaster never kept any. and, well, they are rather um, larger.”

 

“DO-DO YOU WANT TO TRY RE-ANNIMATING IT?”

 

“um well yes, but just be careful not to dismiss it, ok?”

 

“OK! LET US EACH TRY ONE EYE?”

 

Sans nodded, he couldn’t believe he had never tried controlling one with Papyrus before.

 

Sans lit up his left eye, and Papyrus lit up his right and each tried to add their aura to the skull. One eye turned blue, and the other orange as the tiny cat-like skull rattled forward.

 

“KA-Hiss.”

 

It lurched upward in surprise, and then side-to-side. It kept moving up until it bumped into the ceiling.

“uh, weird…paps, i can’t move it down, can you?”

 

Papyrus moved the now hissing skull downward while Sans moved it forward. It was a bit lurchy-Sans was used to a weightier skull.

 

“HELLO LITTLE GRUMPY” Papyrus tried to pet the little blaster, and it bit his arm.

Sans snapped it back a bit.

 

“WHY DOES EVERYTHING IN THIS WORLD GREET ME BY BITING ME?” Papyrus massaged his arm, but kept controlling it.

 

“well, hey there, i’ve never summoned a blaster with this much personality before…maybe it isn’t fully obeying because we aren’t its original owner?”

 

“YES, HOW ABOUT WE DO NOT SHOOT WITH IT?”

As if on cue the tiny blaster let out a tiny beam of green light towards poor Catsup, who had been napping on the couch… Catsup jumped off the couch and ran to Papyrus’s room and the blast hit the wall. The wall took 1 HP and now had a tiny black mark on it.

 

“ok that is enough mister!”

 

Sans de-lit his eye, and Papyrus followed suit.

 

“NYEHHEH HEH…NEXT TIME WE PRACTICE, MAYBE WE SHOULD DO SO OUTSIDE?”

 

“heh, yeah. let’s finish the letter?”

 

“OK!”

 

Papyrus picked up the letter,

 

“FINALLY, THE POUCH CONTAINS SOMETHING SPECIAL FROM OUR FAMILY! I ADMIRED ASGORE’S ABILITY TO GROW THE LITTLE YELLOW FLOWERES UNDERGROUND.   WHEN I WAS A MONSTERLING, I WAS SO EXCITED ABOUT THEM THAT HE GAVE ME THIS POUCH. HE SAID THEY WOULD GROW A SPECIAL BLUE FLOWER…BUT NOT UNDERGROUND. IF YOU EVER GET TO THE SURFACE, PLEASE PLANT IT FOR ME. I AM SORRY TO ASK ANYTHING OF YOU, BUT I HOPE THAT YOU UNDERSTAND THAT I LOVE YOU, AND EVEN WHEN I FALL, MY ASHES WILL LOVE YOU.

 

I WISH I COULD MEET YOU AGAIN, AND THAT THINGS COULD HAVE BEEN DIFFERENT- BUT WHATEVER HAPPENS WHATEVER YOU DO, REMEMBER I AM PROUD OF YOU.

 

GOOD LUCK SWEET PAPYRUS AND SANS. I LOVE YOU BOTH.

 

-MOM”

 

*********************

 

“well…i am out of tears, but i feel better knowing a bit about her, you know?”

 

“YEAH, I DO, TOO, BROTHER. I AM HAPPY THAT SHE LOVED US.”

 

“she is so cool-she liked magic, and the surface, and yeah, she loved us.”

 

Sans felt warm inside his soul.

 

****

 


	48. In which things get heated <3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alright. So some things many of you have wanted to happen for a while happen in this chapter. I hope it is satisfying, but I think that Grillby and Sans are finally ready. 
> 
> Enjoy

Sans and Papyrus went upstairs to comfort Catsup and share with Grillby and Nile what they had learned. Sans carefully hid the music box in his room on behalf of Papyrus.

 

“ _OH PAPYRUS AND SANS, YOUR MOTHER WAS SO LOVELY.”_

“…She seems like a wonderful monster…you two must take after her!...and she could summon skulls, too?..”

 

“yeah! but hers were green and smaller…and had a bit more…individuality.”

 

“ANYWAY, CASSANDIRA TOLD ME THAT IF WE HAD ANY QUESTIONS AFTER OPENING THE BOX, THAT WE WERE FREE TO STOP BY ANYTIME. SHE IS A NICE MONSTER, MAYBE WE COULD HAVE HER OVER SOMETIME.”

 

Grillby helped Sans carry up the truck, paintbrushes, and drawings. Papyrus had already carefully slipped the photos into a photo album…the same album with the picture of Gaster. Sans smiled at the flower painting one last time before heading up the stairs.

 

****************************************

 

The skeleton and flame monster ended up curling up together in bed, talking about Onyx, life, everything.

 

“what did your mom say to eat?”

 

“…oh Asgore…she sent me a page length-poem…”

 

“she wrote a poem about surface wood? you must be really missing out.”

 

“…She just edited an old human folk poem…to cover more wood…and it is rather long…”

 

“oh, come on, let’s read it!”

 

Grillby sighed, it was informative, but he would have preferred a simple list.

 

 _Beechwood_ _,_ _Hazel,_ _and_ _Hornbeam_ _fires burn bright and clear  
If the logs are kept a year  
Store your beech for Gyftmastide  
With _ _new holly_ _laid beside_

 _Cedar_ _flame is small but steady_

 _But it and_ _Horse or sweet Chestnut’s_ _spitting will keep you at ready,_  
Chestnut, Sycamore, and Laurels only good they say  
If for years 'tis stayed away  
else, like Alder, Spruce, Birch and fir it burns too fast  
Blazes too bright and does not last

 _Yew, Rowan, Maple_ _and Lilac logs heat well,_

 _But sappy pine and eucalyptus logs it is a crime for anyone to sell  
Flames from fragrant larch will shoot up high  
Terribly the sparks will fly_  
_Oaken logs, if dry and old_  
Keep away the winters cold  
Poplar, Acacia, and Laburnum gives a bitter smoke  
Fills your eyes and makes you choke  
Elmwood burns like churchyard mould  
Even the very flames burn cold

_Make a fire of elder tree_

_Death within your house will be_

_With thorn, the clean steady flame is good kindling,_

_But a fire with a willow log will be dwindling._  
Hawthorn stored a season bakes the sweetest bread  
So it is in Ireland said  
Applewood and Plum will scent the room  
Seasoned Pear and cherry wood smells like a flower in bloom  
But Ashwood wet and Ashwood dry  
A King may warm his slippers by.

 

“oh man! There are a lot more types than i thought there would be.”

 

“…apparently this is not even every type…and beside that there are all sorts of things to worry about…like if the tree is endangered…and if it has been treated with chemicals for flooring...it is a bit overwhelming…but my mom suggested I start with any dried wood that sounds fun….My dad told me that I needed to try young Holly…which is weird because dried is typically better…”

 

“well, let’s see what we can find for you tomorrow, we can take a taxi to the mall, or hardware store, or forest. it is real sweet of your mom to put the poem together for you.”

 

“…I really love my mom…she cares…and she wants me to be happy…I should try and eat better so she worries less…After hearing about your mom…well I need to appreciate my own more…”

 Sans hugged Grillby.

“heh, i think our moms would have gotten along. mom seemed keen on me and papyrus saving our old toys for when we had monsterlings, so i think she would have gotten along with afi, too. did you get to talk to him when you called home?”

 

“…Ah…haha…yes they would have gotten along…Dad…is doing better now that he is in lava…but he cools drastically whenever he leaves Hotland… I…I was going to ask if maybe we could visit him for Gyftmas…He insisted on coming up.. but my mother and I…would like to see him…Papyrus and Nile… would of course be welcome…”

 

“grillbz, i am sorry that afi is still having some trouble. i would be honored to spend Gyftmas with your family. i’ll ask nile and papyrus, too. they might prefer it to being stuck here at home alone. well…maybe.”

 

Grillby hugged Sans, merging into his torso. Sans giggled.

 

‘heh grillby that tickles a bit.”

 

The two monsters curled up under the blanket.

 

****<3 ******<3*********<3********<3*************<3****************

Grillby and Sans had been making out for a while, with Grillby’s head phasing into Sans’.

 

Grillby started to half merge into Sans torso…

 

“heh, now that really tickles.”

 

“Ah well…maybe it would tickle less if you were not wearing such a fuzzy shirt?...”

 

Grillby pawed at Sans cotton shirt.

 

“are you trying to seduce me, grillby?”

 

“…Yes…but only if you want…”

 

Sans and Grillby ran their hands over each other.

 

Grillby and Sans found themselves without shirts…or pants…

 

The two continued to make out…Grillby’s rather fiery tongue was going pretty deep, but Sans didn’t need to breathe… Sans grabbed Grilby and pulled Grillby’s waist to his…oh wow…it really was hotter than the rest of him…it was incredibly scorching…but not quite painful…

 

Sans wanted more. The flames started to come off of Grillby’s body and lick Sans’ bones. Sans looked to Grillby and slipped a finger into his boxers?

 

“is this ok?”

 

Grillby smiled happily,

 

“...abo0luteoly…yes…”

 

Sans wasn’t entirely naive, but he still had no idea what in the Core he was doing. He moved his hand around Grillby’s crotch, it was hard to stroke the elemental, as Grillby kept going from a magma-ey solid to fire. Sans tried to gently stroke the area.

 

“um… am i doing it right?”

 

Grillby helped guide Sans’ hand a little lower and for a second Sans though he felt a tip of something long…before it turned to flame. Oh monster was that…?

 

“…heh…o0oo…it feels great…I am s0rry…I am excited and having trouble staying solid…”

 

Sans caressed Grillby’s face, which was beautiful…his hair was swirling…he was so happy.

 

“…grillbabe…do not worry about staying solid…i…i think i figured it out…”

 

Sans started to recognize that even if Grillby was a mess of fire there were certain…areas of fire. Could fire have different areas? I mean it had to or else how could Grillby be? He stroked his hands over the hottest spot.

 

Grillby let out a spark.

 

“…hmmm…Sansy that fe0oo g00o…let me do som0thing for yo0.”

 

Grillby moved so he was on top of Sans, and laid him on a pillow.

The flame monster slipped a fiery finger into Sans shorts,

 

“…sAme…ok for you…?”

 

“yup!” Sans was a little nervous but excited.

 

Sans had no idea, but Grillby was incredibly nervous. Grillby had never dated a skeleton before…I mean… they didn’t exactly have nerves to stimulate? He’s dated Lizards, elementals, a diamond headed monster…but they all were elemental like him or well…were animals…But maybe skeletons had magical nerves? Would this work?

 

Grillby moved his head into Sans’ pelvis and tried licking the sides with fire, gently stroking different bones. Sans was smiling, but timidly? He seemed to be enjoying it? Oh no, did he?

 

“…Sans…do you… like it?…”

 

“huh, no it is nice, um…it is just weird to get um… so much attention.”

 

Grillby smiled at Sans,

 

“…well… I do not want you to feel bad…but you deserve to feel good, too…just let me know if you want me to stop or to do something else...”

 

“heh, thanks…but i like it, and i am curious to see what you are doing.”

 

Huh, but Grillby really wanted to turn his lover on… he tried the ribs… Sans soul started glowing…which was nice, but not yet…no he was pretty sure it would be down here…

Grillby tried stoking Sans’ coccyx-And Sans looked surprised. His eyes lit up and his mouth made a funny o-shape.

 

Yes! Grillby recognized that shape.

 

“heh, grillby? wow. that feels crazy good…wow…oh…”

 

After a minute Grillby came up and laid on top of Sans.

 

“…Sans…was that nice?...”

 

“yes. That was so nice. do you want to…”

 

“...Do…I want…to?...”

 

“soul share?”

 

Grillby turned yellow white.

 

“...Yes…I do…”

 

The two hugged, and their souls filled with light.

 

Sans started to let his pulse,

 

“…Just hold on…we should you know…use some protection?...”

 

Grillby was worried it would ruin the mood, but the anticipation just made Sans more excited.

 

“…I…um…got this for Halloween…I was going to ask…”

*******

Grillby had a little bag next to the empty costume bag from a few days ago. He got out three bottles of potions, one white and sparkling with many little blue pearls infused in it. It also emanated a white mist. The second was yellow and flaming with red molten blobs and white stars sparking out of the top. The final one was a cloudy orange. It did not seem particularly special, but when Grillby touched it, it glowed so brightly it hurt to look at it.

 

“…Unfortunately Gerson was… not entirely sure what would work…the white is a potion he made just for you…the yellow is for me… and the cloudy orange is a special mixture for both of us…when I um…have shared my soul with an elemental of another type…we just would take our own since that works best with high-magic monsters…but with animal monsters you need to…take a mixed potion…I do not know what is best…but Gerson was pretty sure we should mix it…since ‘skeletons are just hairless humans, right…”

 

“hmm, but isn’t the whole reason the doctor thinks we can have kids is because of my high magic?”

 

“…Yes, I agreed, so Gerson and I talked to Dr. Jangles…He did not know either…but he also recommended the mix…and then to take the separate ones tomorrow as backup…he wants us to let him know how it goes…and since the mixture is a largely untested potion, there could be side effects…”

 

“wait, if he makes them uniquely for each monster don’t they all have unknown effects?”

 

“No…Gerson has it down to a science…the standard fire elemental potion is a fire potion that is either red or yellow… He just added the sparks and magma bubbles because I have some magma monster in me…The white sparkling liquid is for all skeletons, you are just very magical, so you get many blue beads for your strong gravity magic, and the mist for the teleport…”

 

“why can’t we take them both at the same time?”

 

“…It is too dangerous to take that many potions that quickly…”

Sans smiled

 

“well, i guess we really are the first, huh?”

 

“…Yeah… well…maybe once everyone sees how happy we are all the elementals will want to find their own cute skeletons to hug…”

 

“heh, as long as the other skeletons stay away from you.”

“…So with the risks laid out… are you ok with it?...”

 

“yeah, absolutely. and like dr. jangles said, we can take the others as backup tomorrow. and well, i really want to try.”

 

“…Me…to0…”

 

Grillby poured Sans and himself a glass of the cloudy orange potion. It was extremely magical. As Grillby and Sans swirled it in the glass clockwise, the color separated, pearly white liquid swirled in with a red-peachy molten slurry. As they swirled it counterclockwise the mixture became a cloudy orange again.

 

The two linked arms and downed the potions.

 

Sans felt a warm fire grow in his soul…his glowing eye sockets turned to purple-fire. Grillby felt his soul chill…his arms turned to solid magma.

 

Despite the new sensation, the two could not hold back anymore. Grillby pulled Sans in for a hug, and Sans held Grillby’s face, the fire in his eye mixing with Grillby’s head.

 

Finally, the two merged their bodies together…Sans naturally moved his hips into Grillby, and Grillby wrapping himself into Sans…his fiery legs merging into Sans lower back. Grillby’s head and chest became fire, and while his magma arms held Sans tight, the rest of him merged into Sans rib-cage and into his skull. For a few seconds Grillby was completely merged, and Sans tried not to let out a moan as Grillby’s flames went into the different crevices, while still keeping enough of a presence to put some pressure on the all the right places. Grillby came out and Sans took care to just make him feel good, his hands caressing every inch, his teeth kissing every part of Grillby.

 

 They did this a few time...

 

Grillby smiled and laughed,

 

“…o00o…oO00o…”

 

He let his soul come out of his chest, and the white hear glowed a bright happy red. Sans soul joined, and Grillby looked into Sans’ glowing eye sockets, as they both smiled with wonder.

Sans smiled and a tiny white blue light pulsed out of is soul, hitting Grillby’s directly in the center. Sans smiled and thought of Grillby and without thinking a tiny pulse came out of his soul…a bead of light hit Grillby.

 

Grillby felt Sans’s love…it was so incredibly happy…hahahaha…there was a small sense of sadness…a tiny twinge of melancholy…but the overall sense was that of happiness…joy…

 

**I want you to be so happy.**

The room went black for a second as they entered the GUI.

 

***Heh heh, because you make me so happy***

***Grillby could not help but smile and laugh***

Wow, Grillby has heard that sometimes when you were in love the GUI would come up. He had shared souls many ties before…and it had never happened before.

 

The GUI faded and Grillby was ready to share his soul back.

 

Grillby smiled and sent back a pulse. As his soul-beat pulsed through the thread it turned red, and then purple over Sans’ blue white one.

 

Sans felt it hit him…wow. it was stupid to say, but he never expected to feel this much energy from Grillby. Like, a wonderful blaze of life entered him. He felt…so secure and safe…Grillby really rally cared…and would do anything for him.

 

He felt so…loved and cared for.

 

The GUI flicked for a second…

 

**I want to be your fire**

The two hugged, their foreheads touching together, letting the happy soul pulses wash over them.

 

"...Was it...ok...for your first time..."

 

"grillby...i...i am so happy."

 

"...I love you Sans..."

 

"i love you grillby."

********************

The next morning, Sans and Grillby woke up in each other’s arms. They had stayed up pretty late, sharing their soul, until they snuggled into slumber. When they woke up, Sans soul tried to send out one more thread, but it was time to get up, or at least try to.

 

“grillbabe…you are so much! you are amazing. pure energy and love. I love you. um, can you tell me about being fire?”

 

“…I love you too Sansy…hmmm…but being fire…It is not that exciting…”

 

“that is a lie.”

 

“…Ok..let me explain then …so Sans…do you want to understand how elemental temperatures work?...”

 

Sans had some idea but he figured Grillby’s perspective would be helpful.

 

“…Ok…sorry if it is a bit boring…”

 

“there is no way this is boring.”

 

 

“…So… first things first…elementals are magical….we can control our temperature so that we do not hurt other monsters…so the color of our flames tells you how hot we are if we were not to control it…so do not be scared that I will melt you…”

 

“i’m only scared you will melt my heart.” Sans winked.

 

 

Grillby smiled at Sans and laughed and laughed with his flames kissing Sans. he was still a little flirty from last night, but he continued,

 

“…OoOo…Ok…so with fire elementals…there are a few different types… Class 1 elementals soul’s have standard fire…with no additional chemicals…my cousin Fuku, is a Class 2…her soul naturally has other chemicals that change the color of her base flame to green…Class 3 are entirely magical fires…they just have one color and a very low set temperature...I suppose skeletons and mummies have an extremely weak form of that with your eye glow…thus you cannot really use them to heat things even if you wanted…Class 4 is lava elementals…they usually are not as hot as Class 1 and 2 as most lava monsters are not made of ultra mafic lava…”

 

“…I am technically Class 1 and Class 4, because my dad is volcanic, while my mom is standard fire…lava has a shorter range of temperatures…with the hottest part being the molten core and any explosions…on top of that my father is mostly felsic or intermediate lava…so max of 900 degrees…”

 

"dang...that is ridiculous!"

 

“…Well…you might think that…but…”

 

Grillby smiled.

 

“…Do you have a candle?…”

Sans sneakily short cutted into the kitchen and swiped a candle. He at least had shorts on, but did not really want to bump into his brother, who thankfully was in his room.

 

Grillby smiled and kissed Sans as the skeleton popped back onto the bed.

 

 

“…Sans…you are brave to leave the snuggly bed..I will warm you up again…”

 

Grillby hugged Sans into him again, while holding the candle.

 

“…So…I take after my mother mostly… however, my core has some lava in it…which is why after I get wet I can create a charred looking limb…my mother cannot do that…usually her flame just gets slower…and if her limb goes out…she will miss it for a while…although…I have heard that a fire elemental can obtain a bit of a core…if they are hot enough to melt rocks…but do not burn them away…”

 

Grillby lit the candle.

 

“…Overall I am Class 1…which is like a candle…a hot candle should be more yellow than red…with its core white or blue and its tips red…red is minimum 800 degrees Celsius…orange is 1200 degrees…and yellow…which is the highest I can reach on the outside without trying… 1300 degrees…”

 

“but i only saw you super yellowish when we were in the desert!”

 

“…Well…yeah…if I were healthier I would maybe be mostly orange-yellow, and my white core would be bigger…but going white is a little too hot for me to sustain or control in normal temperatures…So I reserve that for if I am trying to fight…I would be scared to hurt my friends…so I try to control my temperature…so that those around me are comfortable…and so I can touch things like glass…and tables…and clothing…um young elementals sometimes burn through shirts and chairs and stuff…”

 

“heh, so you can touch cute skeeltons?”

 

“…Yes…”

 

Grillby Kissed Sans again.

 

“oh, then how hot are you when you turn white?”

 

“…Well that takes a lot of energy…1400-1500 degrees Celsius…it is a good workout…my absolute limit is 1500-1600 degrees Celsius…which is blue… I have trouble actively getting my flames blue…I am rather out of shape…but sometimes…if I get embarrassed my flames with briefly turn those colors…and as a baby I was blue…but you lose heat with age…”

_“_ so you can melt a lot of things, i remember steel?”

 

“…Yes…”

 

“uh gold?”

 

“…Gold is easier than steel…”

 

“ ok, ok, i knew that, how about rhodium?”

 

“…Woah Sans!...I would have to use an oven to do that…there may not be an elemental alive that can naturally go that high… you are considered a distinguished elemental if you can melt platinum…zirconium melting is legendary…only one elemental a century is born with that sort of heat…wooh… but those platinum guys are bad enough…they are so insufferable… they have their own stupid club…ugh…my limit is a respectable Palladium according to my Doctor…but I have never hit it…and it was rare Underground… I would be happy if I hit Scandium though…”

 

Grillby’s flame flickered a low blue for a second.

 

“well, grillby, let’s go out and have some fun! maybe if we work out all day you can melt scandium!”

 

“…Maybe after a year!...but yeah, let’s call it a date…”

 

****************


	49. In which Sans and Grillby get some wood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> seriously, they just buy some wood. I was hoping to catch up to February in the work by now, but sadly Halloween took too long.
> 
>  
> 
> I hope you enjoy, thank you for reading!

For the conversation about being an elemental Grillby had been lying with his face half in a pillow, while Sans leaned over him. Grillby now removed his head from the pillow.

 

Sans gasped.

 

Grillby’s eye, and part of his hair now had purple-blue flames in it…

 

“uhh…babe…remember how you mentioned the potion might have side effects?

 

“…um, yes…”

 

“i think my eye magic might be stuck in your fire.”

 

“…..What?...”

 

Grillby ran to the bathroom, and tried brushing the blue fire in his hair out by wafting it away from the rest of his head. Funnily enough fire-covered hands were not ideal for separating fire. If anything his hand now had a spot of blue on it.

 

 

A big blue flame covered his right eye, forehead and hair. He looked a bit like one of Dogamy and Dogaressa’s puppies.

 

Sans ran in.

 

“could we, uh, dye the rest of your hair to match?”

 

“…Uh…maybe…but it will wear out throughout the day…and I do not have the stuff for purple hair…just green…uh…but it is ok… not too bad, really…maybe trendy?...”

 

Truthfully it was not really trendy and Grillby knew it. The spot on his hand continued to burn blue. Grillby shivered.

 

“grillby! crap did i make you sick?”

 

“….Ugh no…It is just a chiller flame…remember…magical fire…is not very hot…”

 

“we can try taking our own potions, that could help?”

 

Grillby took a big swig from the sparking yellow bottle. Mhhmmm he always liked drinking it…it was flavored like schnapps. Grillby let out a fiery hiccup, complete with little yellow star-sparks. He did feel warmer.

 

Sans tasted his potion taking a cautious sip. It was cool, and refreshing, like ice and mint. One of the little blue drops of liquid hit his tongue, and while Sans was expecting them to be cold- he was not expecting it to numb his tongue for a second. Sans exhaled a misty breath, smiling.

 

Despite the potion, Grillby’s face remained spotted and it looked like it was spreading down his face.

 

“i am so sorry grillby. do you want me to call dr. jangles or gerson?”

 

“…yes…that is a good idea…if we are lucky we can get an appointment before night…but really Sans…it is no big deal…we can still have fun today…”

 

************

Sans and Grillby got an appointment for 3 o’ clock and Dr. Jangles briefly told Grillby he should be fine for some fun. The pair reluctantly put some clothes on and tiptoed downstairs, but at this point had been beaten by Papyrus and Nile, who were wearing a new pair of matching MTT onesie Pajamas. The Pajamas had “Glamorous” written on the backs, the fron was Mettaton’s face, and the bottoms were glitter colored.

The skeleton and mummy looked like they had made a big breakfast of eggs, bacon and croissants, but were instead eating cereal.

 

Sans looked at the eggs, which had turned ashen. The croissants had mold on them, and the bacon looked green. He supposed that Nile’s magic was acting up.

 

_“SORRY SANS, I WILL BUT SOME NEW EGGS AND BACON TODAY. LUCKILY PAPYRUS HAS SOME…COOL… CEREAL WE CAN EAT.”_

Papyrus poured out the last of a box of cereal, tiny sparkles flying onto his bowl and the table.

 

Oh no, did that mean-

 

“YES! NEW AND IMPROVED SUPER SUGAR GLITTERBOMB MTT SQUARES. THERE ARE MORE ON TOP OF THE FRIDGE. AND THIS TIME THEY ARE NON-TOXIC!”

 

Sans looked to see if there was absolutely any other cereal to eat, but alas, there were only four other boxes of the same type.

 

“papyrus, when i asked you to get cereal i didn’t mean for the year.”

 

Papyrus looked up at Sans, his smile filled with purple glitter,

 

“SANS! THIS NEW MTT CEREAL IS PACKED WITH NURTIENTS! AND THEY HAVE DIFFERENT PRIZES INSIDE!

Nile and Papyrus each had a prize-a tiny plastic Mettaton figurine with a pose-able leg. Each one was wearing a different MTT-accessory. Nile’s tiny cursed cat figurine was gnawing on her Mettaton figurine’s leg.

Sans read the ingredients list of the new cereal and while the ingredients were technically edible, the skeleton decided to see what was in the fridge.

 

Umm there was yogurt-good…and ketchup! And um, there was some tomato sauce, pumpkins, and half a carton of milk. Wow they needed to go shopping again. Sans did not feel like baking so he grabbed the yogurt and mixed in some ketchup. Why not- it was disgusting, but better than what Papyrus was eating.

 

Grillby took one look at the ketchup concoction and almost turned to ash. He decided to ask Papyrus for the empty cereal box. After shaking as much glitter off the cardboard as possible, Grillby reluctantly grabbed the cardboard and sat down, ripping it into smaller pieces.

 

The pair sat around the table and started munching on the food. Papyrus smiled an almost shit-eating grin as Grillby pouted and burned up the little Mettaton cartoon mascot into his face.

 

“NYEH HEH HEH!”

 

Papyrus nudged Nile,

 

“GRILLBY, I LIKE YOUR NEW HAIR DYE! IT IS A RATHER BOLD CHOICE! VERY FRESH! I HOPE SANS NOTICED IT.”

 

“….my new hair dye?...ah yes…yes…um…I …had some trouble putting it on…but it uh…looks cool…”

 

Papyrus frowned,

“OH WOW, I GUESS IF YOU MISS YOU CANNOT WASH IT OFF, NYEH HEH HEH. BUT GRILLBY! YOU LIED!”

 

“…Uh…uhhh…”

 

“C’MON DO NOT BE SHY! I FIGURED OUT WHAT HAPPENED!”

 

“paps!”

 

“NYEH HEH HEH! I HEARD YOU BUMPING AROUND LATE LAST NIGHT! YOU DYED IT SANS’ FAVORITE COLOR IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT TO SURPRISE HIM! AND TO MATCH HIS EYE! BUT IT WAS DARK SO YOU MISSED AND GOT SOME ON YOUR HEAD! HOW ROMANTIC.”

 

Sans and Grillby sighed in relief.

 

“…Yes… you caught me…I uh… had trouble seeing…”

 

Grillby always had enough light to see, but whatever.

 

“IT IS A ROMANTIC MORNING TO START OFF YOUR NEW HEALTHY LIFESTYLE DATE! GRILLBY I ALWAYS KNEW YOU WERE GOOD FOR SANS!”

 

Papyrus hugged Grillby tightly-Grillby was not sure he really had a spine-but if he did it was cracked it half now.

 

Sans smiled and played along,

 

“awww, grillbabe, you are so romantic.”

 

Grillby smiled. He wondered if Papyrus knew and was getting some revenge for all the exercise jokes? Oh well. He finished burning up the box.

 

********

After breakfast, Grillby briefly checked in at the restaurant and while Sans emailed his boss with a grant revision in one of the booths with Nile and Zostra who were also going shopping.

 

As Sans finished, Nile got up to talk to Papyrus and Zostra started talking to Sans.

 

“Soooo…Sannnnnsss…I heard youuu took Kuk home.”

 

“oh yeah, it was no problem, i just short cutted underground.”

 

“hhhhmmm…whaaat an amazing power! Youu know I am not as striiict aboouut magic as many necrotics, did you know I have strooong magic?”

 

“huh, no i did not.”

 

“…Well…it is useful to have! My family has encouraged my power, theeey say it will protect us from humans or help us in new ways every day. You see Sanssss I haaave an extremely strong icy aura which today is good for chilling drinks maade by a fiiire mann…”

 

Zostra picked up her orange juice and with one hand clenched it. The beverage iced up and froze completely. Zostra turned it upside down and none spilled out.

 

“oh wow, real ice magic! not just an aura? Wow!”

 

“…Yess…”

 

Zostra nodded proudly,

 

“…it is rare!...I can also freeze a monsters soul with my special attack…though that is a fear attack…and I would not use it on a frieeend…”

 

Sans wondered if Zostra would have done well in Snowdin.

 

Also, it was cool to meet another necrotic with slightly creepy magical attacks.

 

“I ammm… sorry to be nooosy, but dooo youuu know any other monterss whoo haaave strong magic?”

 

“um, well besides paps and undyne-technically yes, but they are hard to meet. they are searching for a missing friend.”

 

Zostra crooned,

 

“Oooh…how mysterious but unfortunate. Well if any would like to make a new frieeend I would not mind helping. ”

 

 

Sans tried to imagine introducing Zostra to Whiskers, Dr. Worm, Goner Kid, or Dr. Ficus. He was pretty sure they were all too far-gone.

 

“i-i do not think they will ever stop looking, the truth is he is gone.”

 

Zostra stroked her rotten chin wistfully.  

 

 

***

 

Grillby ran upstairs to his apartment to get a clean shirt for shopping. Hmm. But it was also a date. After last night he wanted to look cute-uh, but not too fancy.

 

Ugh, what did he even own? Ok, for pants it was going to be black slacks, or the leather studded ones. Black slacks it was.

 

For shirts he had a variety of bartending shirts and dress shirts: white button down, a white button down, a black button down with red suspenders, a black button down with a red vest, a white button down with a black blazer, a black vest, a ‘COME TO GERSON’S’ t-shirt, a leather shirt with spikes in it, and a crop top that was from Papyrus.

 

 

Ok calling it a variety was probably a lie. Wasn’t there anything a bit more casual he could wear?

 

At the back of his closet he found what he wanted, pushing away the raincoat and a long forgotten scarf...

 

An almost brand new fuzzy green sweater that someone had given to him Underground. He thought he had never actually worn it before, I mean, usually he was overheated, not under-heated. But Sans magic definitely had made him feel a bit nippy.

 

It pinched his arms a bit, but was otherwise a comfortable fit.

 

Grillby came down in the sweater, and Sans smiled wide. Dang-he had not really dressed in anything cute-the usual t-shirt, hoodie, and striped shorts. Grillby was killing it in the sweater though. He thought about last night, and about how he wanted to curl up with Grillby again in the fuzzy sweater…

 

“…Hey Sansy…ready for our hot date?...”

 

“i was bone ready.”

 

“heheheheheheh”

 

“…SNORT…hahahHaH0…”

 

Papyrus was washing dishes in the other room and rolled his magical eyes-still he was overjoyed that the pair were doing something together. Nyeh heh heh.

 

Sans and Grillby linked arms, and short-cutted to the hardware store.

 

****

Sharon the salesperson at the flooring store was happy to finally meet some monsters expanding their home! She was new, and the boss did not like her, but if she did well and sold a lot of lumber to the new demographic maybe he would change his mind. She tied back her mousy brown hair and strutted up to the new monster customers.

 

If they liked it here, then all the new monsters building homes might come to their business. Her boss was watching her.

 

“Hello! And welcome to Bill’s Lumber House! The best home for flooring, decks, and everything lumber! What can I help you with?”

 

“oh, we want to get a few different types of wood, we are not sure what is best, though, so feel free to _floor_ us.”

 

“Oh hahahaha how very punny, sir! You said you want flooring, are you considering doing your own staining to the wood or would you like a finished product?” Sharon smiled while her manager Dan’s eyes bored into the back of her neck.

 

“…Oh you can stain it?…”

 

The sales lady got excited,

 

“Yes whatever color you want! Personally, the stains they come with are fine, but I like to let the wood speak to me!” Oh god, Dan hated when she waxed poetic.

 

“so, it burns better with a stain? like juice or something? wouldn’t that make it burn worse?”

 

“…Sans! It is about taste too!...”

 

Sharon frowned for a second- taste? W-Wait. One of the monsters was made of fire-oh.

 

“Wait- wait. So if I sell you this premium walnut, you are going to eat it as a snack?”

 

“…Well, it is very healthy for an elemental to eat wood…”

 

Sharon started to panic, her training had not covered this.

 

“Wood to eat?”

 

“…Uh…”

 

“look, uh, we have no idea what is good, we only have experience with pine and oak.” Sans wanted Grillby to get whatever tasted the best.

 

Grillby’s flames flickered I disgust thinking about the nasty oak.

 

The saleslady thought for a second. Someone who ate wood would return. Often. She smiled, this was her chance,

 

“Why didn’t you say so! Let me take you to the untreated wood section, you do not want to eat any unnatural stains, or glue, or something with lots of formaldehyde right?”

 

Grillby looked at Sans.

 

“formaldehyde is pretty noxious.”

 

The scientists in Biology used it to preserve dead tissues.

 

“...What…noo!”

 

“Well, a lot of woods for flooring are treated with glues, especially engineered wood-which is made by gluing smaller pieces of wood together. No-you want solid unfinished product!”

 

“….Yes!...of course… oh Asgore… do you think my parents have been avoiding glue?…” Grillby looked a bit concerned.

 

“Be sure to advise them! I am pretty sure it is dangerous to burn formaldehyde!” Sharon did not want any potential customers to get turned off of the store’s products. Or sue.

 

Grillby started texting his mother.

 

“These woods over here are either made without glues or with only natural products. Now, tell me how do you feel about sustainability?”

 

“…Sustainability?...”

 

“Yes! You know that excessive logging of endangered woods is causing habitat destruction in Brazil, Asia, and here in the good U-S- of A! Illegal logging is profitable, and the wood-types are appealing, but if you put in a little effort you can make sure you are buying a non-endangered wood that was sustainably harvested!”

 

Sharon had practiced that line in training about a dozen times. She still felt it came off as rather corny, but it looked like the monsters cared about the issue. She heard Dan grunt approvingly-good.

 

“wait, is that like how at the zoo we saw animals that were endangered? it is because their trees are being cut down?” Sans looked concerned now.

 

“Well, in some cases, yes, but of course it is a complicated issue.”

 

Grillby thought of the tiny little muntjak deer at the zoo. He thought about the tiny deer going hungry because he ate its tree. Oh Asgore. Now the tiny imaginary deer was crying.

 

“…I Absolutely do not want to eat non-sustainable trees…For the cute Muntjaks!...please tell me what should I avoid?...”

 

 

“wait i did not think they were endangered, do they even eat tre-”

Sans was cut off by Sharon,

 

“No problem! Avoid Wenge, Ebony, Brazillian Mahogany, Teak in general, Murbau, and Sapelee unless you can absolutely guarantee it was harvested sustainably. For other woods that take long times to grow, such as Oak, make sure that the company properly manages their forests, with wood from the EU being best. You can also buy fast growing trees like cork, pines, and bamboo!”

 

Grillby and Sans then took some time looking at the wood types.

 

Sharon went to the back of the store.

 

“Dan I need a cup.”

 

“You need a cup Sharon?”

 

“watch this.”

 

Sharon took the paper cup and put some clean wood curls from the cherry in it.

 

“Might I recommend this wood here, sir, here try a free sample!”

 

Grillby took the cup and munched it and the cherry wood up.

 

Sharon was a little taken aback by Grillby eating the cup, too, but smiled as he formed a happy smile.

 

“…Yes…this is actually pretty good…could we get a few feet of this?”

 

“Absolutely!”

 

********

 

Sharon then cut a few feet from several different types of flooring. This was going great. Dan looked on in amazement as Sharon made her first big sale.

 

“Mr. Dhosi, If you like our wood, please tell your friends and family about us! And let me know what types you like best.”

 

Grillby and Sans happily paid for the wood and teleported out of the store.

 

Manager Dan came up to Sharon and the two did a little business planning.

 

 

*********

 

Sans and Grillby happily dropped the wood off in Grillby’s apartment.

 

Grillby could not drool, but Sans was pretty sure the hungry elemental who had only eaten a box was doing the equivalent.

 

“…Ok Sans…I am a little excited…it tasted better than I thought…but before we settle let’s get you some health food, too…”

 

“what? i eat what you guys eat?”

 

“…Which is primarily spaghetti…fried food… and the occasional balanced meal from Nile…”

 

This was unfortunately true.

 

Sans reluctantly short-cutted Grillby to the grocery store, where the elemental gushed over vegetables for Sans to eat.

 

“…Ok…now we can see if you like any besides tomatoes...and my mother recommended a dish for you…”

 

Grillby had frantically been texting his mother about Formaldehyde and deer, and had been tested a few old family recipes back.

 

After the shopping, the two short-cutted to Grillby’s apartment, Grillby armed with a grocery bag, and Sans with lumber supplies.

 

“ok, grillbz. let’s make this fun. i’ll try prepping some food for you, and you can prep some for me, like a cooking challenge?”

 

“…Ok..and let’s each try a bit of everything…so tiny portions of each?...”

 

“ok!”

 

Sans got out the wood, and proceeded to saw it into smaller pieces, trying his best to do even squares so none of it would get wasted. He looked at the different types, and got out some dressings: sunflower oil, hazelnut oil, and gasoline.

 

Ok, so maybe the nut trees would taste good together?

 

Sans made a pecan, walnut, and hickory sandwich, with hazelnut oil, Swiss cheese, a pickle, and a few pieces of lettuce sandwiched in between. He used the pecan as the bread and had a thin piece of walnut and hickory that were about the same size as the cheese.

 

Next, he tied a sweet dish-he mixed the ash, maple, cedar, and cherry together, chopping the wood into tiny pieces to make a sort of salad. He made a sunflower oil and vinegar dressing, and then added some actual walnuts, and some raspberries.

 

Finally, he cut up little pieces of the white pine, yellow pine, red oak, birch, bamboo, and cork. He was not entirely sure what to do, so he soaked one piece of each in gasoline and left the other piece as a palate cleanser.

 

Grillby on the other hand had prepared grilled eggplant with oil and vinegar, a caprese salad, and a fig and goat cheese sandwich with honey.

**********

 

Each looked at what the other had done with some trepidation.

 

“um, ok. um, this sandwich has cheese…made from goats? like tori?”

 

“…No…from the milk of goats…”

 

“that um. is better. but not super helpful.”

 

“…you don’t mind when it comes from a cow!...”

 

“ok, ok. and your sandwich is made from all the nutty woods.”

 

“…I am nervous about the walnut wood…I have had them in nut form and they are delicious…but to eat the tree part…”

 

Each picked up their sandwich and took a bite.

 

Sans’ eye sockets lit up.

 

“…grillbabe, you made a dessert! this cheese is really sweet. It goes well with the honey and whatever vegetable that is.”

 

 

“…The ‘vegetable’ is actually a fruit!...and that is the nice thing about goat cheese…it pairs well with honey…and Sans…this wood is really flavorful…and nice…it goes well with the cheese… The pickle is a bit weird…but the way the cheese melts together with the nutty taste…is actually great…”

 

Grillby’s flames-even the blue spot- turned a bright yellow as he ate the sandwich, Sans liked how happy he looked.

 

“…Ok, that was surprisingly good…salad time?…”

 

Sans and Grillby prepared to more eagerly try salad.

 

Grillby started picking off the walnuts and eating them-

 

“no, you have to eat it together!”

 

“…Ok…OK…”

 

Grillby took a big bite of the salad. Munch munch munch...

 

“…bleoOoh…”

 

Grillby reluctantly swallowed the maple wood.

 

“…I do not think I like that one…”

 

“aww, man.”

 

Munch munch munch…

 

“…But the rest of this stuff is great…”

 

Grillby munched on the ash, cherry, and cedar. The ash really upped his flame.

 

“…This one…is nice…if a bit smoky…” Grillby munched on the cedar some more.

 

“and I like the cherry…reminds me of that popsicle we had…”

 

“oh, yeah, that sweet summer day. i love you grillby.”

 

“…I love you Sans…”

 

 

Sans and Grillby leaned into each other for a minute or two-until Grillby’s stomach magically growled, ruining the moment.

 

“heh, so what do you like so far, babe?”

 

“…Ok…my favorites so far are ash, cedar, cherry, hickory, and walnut…the rest are ok…except maple…”

 

“aha! You did like the walnut wood!”

 

“…Yes…I did…now do you like your salad?...”

 

“are you sure it is a salad? i mean i like the tomato, but the rest looks like cheese and some plant?”

 

“…It is from my mother’s country…caprese salad…fresh mozzarella cheese…which is good if you like it so you get more calcium… tomato, which I know you like…and basil…and herb I was told I needed to find fresh…in olive oil and balsamic vinegar…”

 

Sans took a bite and again loved it.

 

“you know, to be honest i am not a big milk fan, but these cheeses are pretty nice. i was worried about the basil, one time paps used an entire jar of this dried and it was too overpowering, but it is nice fresh.”

 

Sans carefully licked his teeth-he did like it, but it definitely was stuck in his teeth.

 

OK, it was time to try the last meal.

 

“uh sorry, i kind of ran out of ideas after sandwich and salad. but you can try them individually at least.”

 

 

“…Which ones are they again… I want to be prepared for oak…”

 

 

“i think if i tell you, you are just gonna hate on it. let it surprise you!”

 

Grillby tried each one.

 

“OK, this one is weird…it is chewy…alright…but chewy…”

 

“that one is cork-you should recognize it from running a bar.”

 

“…Is this….is this the stuff they put on top of wine bottles?...the same cork!...woah…my mind is rather blown…”

 

Grillby suddenly wondered if these would taste good soaked in wine? He tried the next type,

 

“ok, this one is surprisingly spicy and minty… this is a keeper…”

 

“that is birch. i think paps and i have one of those trees in the front yard…its bark gets everywhere, so if you ever want any…”

 

“…This one tastes familiar…and so does this one…are these pine?…”

 

“yup.”

 

Grillby sparked a bit,

 

“…Yes…they are a bit sappy...”

 

“sappier than me?”

 

Sans kissed grillby’s forehead.

 

“…it is hard to believe…but yes…they beat you out…”

 

“i need to up my game then.”

 

“…Ok…last three…this one is great…this one is amazing…and this one is disgusting…the last one is oak right?…”

 

“yup, white oak. Did you saw you liked the second one.”

 

“…Yeah! I want another piece actually…I told you I would hate the oak…”

 

“here is another piece.”

 

Grillby gobbled another piece down.

 

Sans tried his eggplant, which was not half bad.

 

 

“…what is this tasty one?…”

 

 

“its is red oak.”

 

 

“…What!...” Grillby tried to spit it out, but it had already burned up.

 

“and the other one that you think is good is bamboo.”

 

“…Heh…Sans…I suppose you were right…ok…I hate to admit it…but I would buy the red oak and birch again too…”

 

“and i like the eggplant, the cheeses, and the weird fruit.”

 

“…This was kind of fun after all…”

 

*******************

 

 

Sans and Grillby loafed around for a bit and then went for a walk around the block. They wanted to exercise a bit, but both were pretty out of shape and a steep hill at the end nearly knocked them out. Still-it was only day one of working out; they could not give up now! After the walk they did some sit ups, which devolved into talking each other and hugging, and then further devolved into other activities…before they knew it-it was time for their doctor’s appointment.

 

Grillby’s spot had gotten larger if anything, to the point where several monsters they had bumped into during their walk asked him if he was sick.

 

He was not exactly worried, but he hoped it would be something easy.

 

Sans and Grillby signed in at the lobby, greeting the scorpion monster, Janet. The two waited a bit, apparently there were going to be two doctors and one of them was coming in from a patient visit. Sans spotted a new picture on the wall of baby monsterlings- Alphys, Undyne, and the three little ones. Rinan, Nariko, and Damini were growing at an alarming rate- to the point where the picture seemed so far away. I mean, it would be a year soon! Sans knew fish/lizard monsters got to their juvenile state pretty quickly, but this was ridiculous.

 

Sans wondered how quickly little skeleton-fire monsters grew up. He squeezed Grillby’s hand.


	50. Monster-human relations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The big 5-0! I am so happy to have made it this far! Fifty 4,000 word chapters in less than a year is pretty good! 
> 
>  
> 
> I have been enjoying writing the fic, and hope to continue some plots along for a nice long time.

As Sans and Grillby waited they saw a few other monsters.

 

A Bull and Slime Monster that Papyrus would have recognized were stuck together again. A slime Doctor popped out, with a sigh,

 

“Again! Blurgle! Gurgle! This is the third time this week!”

 

“Hey-We are trying to have a monsterling here!”

 

Sans imagined a jelly-bull monster. It was kind of cute.

 

A Vulcin came in, spewing black magma while another came in looking embarrassed.

 

A fish monster with sparkling rainbow scales came running in with an enormous egg.

 

“How could this happen!”

 

A very concerned pink fish doctor came by and took the fish lady’s hand.

 

“Well, I know it is not breeding season, but like I told you last time the surface sun seems to have an odd effect on monster-fish Biology. Um, let’s talk about it.”

 

“I-I just didn’t think it could happen with one of them.”

 

“Now now, let’s talk privately…”

 

******

Sans and Grillby held hands.

 

“Mr. Dhosi and Mr. Skeleton” A familiar Dr. Jangles floated through the wall.

 

An older skeleton lady in the corner stared as the two got up together. Sans shot her a glare, and squeezed Grillby’s hand more tightly.

 

As Grillby and Sans went through the corridor, a pair of bird monsters ran by and almost floored Sans.

 

 

“…Hey! Be Careful!...”

 

Grillby turned to see the familiar red tail feathers of a certain duck monster.

 

“…Red?...”

 

Red turned his head briefly, his eyes wide…catching Grillby square in the glasses.

 

Grillby did not see who he was with, but he was pretty sure Violet did not have white fuzzy feathers.

 

Wha-?

 

Before Grillby could talk to the guy, he flapped off, leaving the pair to the appointment.

 

Grillby would talk to Red later-but-but how could he? Red was not like that? Was he? No-it was a misunderstanding!

 

 

**************

 

It was a relief to finally see Dr. Jangles…and another Doctor…and well less of a relief to see Gerson. The turtle monster was nice, but Grillby always felt like the guy was judging him with his ancient turtle eyes.

 

“Howdy Boys! So I hear there was a little hiccup with yer’ potions?”

 

Gerson was pushing a cart that was toppling with bottles stacked at odd angles, a cauldron, colorful beads, and a few flasks of various magical liquids.

 

Dr. Jangles smiled at the pair, his ethereal face lighting up to an almost dour shade of pink.

 

“Hello! I am happy to see you both still together and Sans! Your health so far improved! I hope you do not mind, but I invited Dr. Ignacia Furness our resident fire-elemental specialist?

 

Dr. Furness was a tall white searing fire elemental. She had her hair styled into a sharp flame bun, and also wore glasses like Grillby, although hers were pointed sharply. She was so bright it hurt to look at her face, and the white lab coat did nothing to cut the effect. Grillby was sure she could melt platinum.

 

“..o0ooO…o0oO..o0..o0Oo…o0o…” Dr. Furness mumbled a bit.

 

“…Hello…nice to meet you, too…” Grillby replied. Sans and Grillby shook her hand.

 

Of course, I also invited Mr. Gerson Tuttle, who can use the information to make a safer potion.”

 

As Dr. Jangles introduced Gerson, one of the vials on the carts let out an explosive whistle, and blue whizzing streaks erupted out of a jar.

 

“A safer potion!”

 

Gerson smiled,

 

“You-betcha!”

 

Dr. Jangles sighed but proceeded to take out his clip board,

 

“Ok, we are just going to examine your fire now Grillby, do you mind sitting down on the table?”

 

Grillby sat on the exam table. Doctor Furnace turned to him,

 

“..0..Oo…o0Ooo..o0…o0Ooo…o0Oo…o0oO…0o?...”

 

 

“…It is fine if you touch my face…”

 

Dr. Furness stuck a fiery hand fully into Grillby’s head, moving it around in the flames where his eye and head were. After a minute she smiled, her flames relaxing to a mostly bearable brightness.

 

“…H0..0s…f0ne…”

 

Grillby sighed with relief, too.

 

“Wonderful! So I suspect it is just a standard Class 1-3 mix-up. Sans can you glow your eye for me?”

 

Sans glowed his eye. Grillby gasped- it was glowing red.

 

 

“Just like I thought, crimson. Let me just look at it.”

 

Sans nodded and Dr. Jangles shined a small flashlight into Sans’ eye socket. The ghost man stuck his cold nub of a hand around the edges of Sans eye cavity-but whatever he was looking for was not found.

 

Dr. Jangles nodded and ripped a sheet out of the clipboard, crumpling it.

 

“Ok, false alarm. You two have nothing to worry about. Your flames just switched for a bit. Sans, you probably should not use gravity magic for a day, but it should turn back to blue after a few more hours. Grillby, same for you, no excessive flame magic for a day-but I think the worst is over, it should fade in an hour or two...”

 

“wait-that was it?”

 

“Yes, this sort of thing happens with elementals and those who have magical fire. I suspect, Gerson, we need to suppress Sans’ magic more-and the mixed potion is definitely what is needed.”

 

“Well watch and weep fellas! This new potion is gonna knock your teeth out!”

 

Gerson de-lidded the cauldron, which was somehow simmering on a plastic rolling cart. It was filled to the brim with the cloudy orange potion that Grillby and Sans had drank before.

 

The old tortoise swirled it in the glass clockwise and the color separated again to pearly white liquid and red-peachy molten slurry. Gerson took out an old measuring cup and poured an entire sticky cup and a half of the little blue beads that Sans had had into the mixture. Gerson then put on some thermal resistant gloves and carefully grasped some forceps. He had some trouble with the forceps-he did not have opposable thumbs, but he was practiced, and held them firm as he opened a tiny locked star shaped case. He cautiously picked out three glowing star-sparks with the forceps and threw it into the mixture deliberately.

 

“…0…f0w…m0rO…”

 

The Doctor indicated she though it needed more sparks and Gerson obliged- painstakingly picking up three more star-sparks.

 

Gerson mixed it, and this time, the white liquid took in the white star-sparks, while the peachy-red, magma liquid took the blue bubbles. The stars were lost in the beautiful sand like sparkle-but the violent sparks looked like they would cut your tongue open when you sipped it. The blue bubbles proceeded to pop in the molten lava-like portion of the mixture from the heat. The blue merged with the red bubbles. Deep purple bubbles now burbled slowly, each one looking hot enough to burn a hole through your teeth. Gerson smiled and mixed it counterclockwise.

 

The potion went from a peachy to cloudy lavender. The sparks stayed hidden with the bubble after a good counterclockwise swirl.

 

Gerson all but cackled with joy at his creation,

 

“E-hee-hee! This should fix your wagons! Heh heh heh! This is a fun one, you know-but I cannot increase the magic suppressing dose more than this, or it might be lethal, ok fellas?”

 

Dr. Jangles smiled at Grillby and Sans, who looked reluctant to put the concoction in their mouths,

 

“Now, I know it is a bit intense, but this should work. Unfortunately, because the dose is as high as we can go, if there is any magic sharing still, you might get a little bit of flame-mix-up from time to time, but it should not be as cosmetically upsetting. You should now just share little sparks of magic! Here is my number, call me immediately if you get a patch larger than a quarter or if it persists for more than a day or two.”

 

Dr. Jangles wrote down his number, and Dr. Furness added hers.

 

“Normally, I would not give you a phone number, but you two are a first, and I hope you do not mind me saying, we are excited for you.”

 

“…Uh, thanks…what does a patch larger than a quarter mean?…”

 

“Well, it would mean that there was some persistent magic sharing, which could lead to soul-bearing.”

 

“…Wait..so today…with the patch of blue on my face… you thought I was pregnant?...”

 

“Well, the term most gentlemen prefer is soul-carrier but yes, we were. We know you two are not currently thinking of that.”

 

Grillby looked agast, so Dr. Jangles continued,

 

“Now, do not worry, the likelihood of that happening in your face is extremely rare-a viable soul could not persist in your head of course, but it would be dangerous for you! So if it happens again, let me know.”

 

Dr. Furness smiled an elemental smiled and nodded indicating she would be in touch.

 

Sans and Grillby walked out of the Doctor’s office feeling both better and worse.

 

********

 

A few days passed, and Grillby and Sans had significantly less trouble soul sharing with the new potion. It definitely had more of a kick to it than the last one, but if there was once thing both gentlemonsters had-it was a strong magical stomach.

 

Grillby would still get tiny specks of blue in his hair and on…various body parts…but they looked more like freckles than large globby spots. Likewise, Sans’ eye glow would sometimes turn a bit purple, but no one seemed to notice, but Papyrus who decided Sans was becoming ‘MORE PERSEVERING!’.

 

 

The two celebrated the occasion, and embraced.

 

“…I love you o0oo…”

 

“heh, i love you grillby.”

 

Grillby and Sans let their sould mix more, the little pulses of light going back and forth so quickly, that the two felt their soul trying pull them physically closer together-almost like they were knitted. Sans smiled as the magical pulse brought him into a warm fiery hug, theirs souls so close they were practically merged. It was magical.

 

****

 

Of course, work was work, and rather less magical.

 

Grillby found himself getting the cold shoulder-er wing from a certain monster.

 

He had known Red since he had moved to Snowdin, and while it was true that they had not been hanging out as much now hat both were in a relationship, Grillby still considered him very close.

 

 

The duck monster was working at the bar, filling glasses and doing his job, but he was clearly stressed. For the last week, his feathers looked dull and they were falling out. Every time Grillby tried to talk to him, Red turned away and became busy.

 

“…Hey…Red…let’s grab a drink after work?...”

 

“Sorry, gotta run!”

 

“…Red I-…”

 

“Sorry boss-man-need to fill this order!”

 

The whole time, Violet would come by after her work, curling up to Red, smiling at the duck. It seemed like their relationship was fine-but Red seemed nervous around her?

 

Grillby did not want to push, but well, he had to right?

 

 

“…Sans… do you think I should…talk to Red?…”

 

“hard to say, i mean no bones about it, it is fishy? i dunno?”

 

“…Can’t you just use your judgey-thing?”

 

“babe, i try not to use that on people, it is rather personal. you are his friend, just talk to him! i would, but you are a bit closer.”

 

***

It was almost the weekend, and Grillby was growing more and more suspicious of his friend.

 

Grillby watched as Violet came by again, smiling, trying to cheer Red up. The bird was visibly distressed at this point, missing a whole patch of feathers on his chest. Violet seemed calm though, she was wearing a new big pink fluffy sweater that looked adorable.

 

Red touched her stomach, and looked upset though-worried? Guilty? No-Grillby stopped himself. There must be an explanation. He knew Red!

 

Ugh…Still maybe the other bird monster was a relative? I mean Grillby had not really gotten a good look at her-he has seen a round yellow beak, and white wings.

 

But the two had been holding hands.

 

Still relatives could hold hands.

 

His flame simmered-this was not right, Red was a good guy.

 

ENOUGH! It was time to just ask.

 

 

Violet laughed at some joke Red told, while a few more of his feather fell out.

 

Grillby strolled up to Red,

 

“Red…I am sorry to interrupt…but I need to talk to you…clear something up…”

 

A few feathers fell into a glass Red was filling.

 

“Ah, hey Grillby. Heh, would love to, but uh I need to get back to work?”

 

Grillby id his best to glare at Red, it was an odd hour, and besides Violet, Stan, and an old retired rabbit couple the restaurant was pretty empty.

 

“…Actually Red…I think you can afford to take a break…we have to discuss a problem…”

 

“A-a problem?”

 

“…Well not necessarily a problem…I ran into you on Sunday…well…you almost ran into me…but…um…I am curious…were you with a friend or relative?...”

 

“Oh, uh no. not a friend or relative.”

 

Grillby’s flame shot up.

 

Red froze.

 

“Look Grillby, I am really stressed right now, and it is not really your business. But if you insist could we talk about this somewhere more private?”

 

Oof that hurt.

 

“…Um…but we are…friends…I just…it might not be my business…but I…I thought I knew you Red…as a friend…I just…here…we can talk outside if you prefer…”

 

Red, Violet, and a stammering Grillby headed to the door.

 

“…Err…I suppose Violet should know…”

 

“Grillby, what is with you?”

 

“…Red…I did not want to make a scene…but who was the bird lady you were with at the couple’s clinic?…”

 

Violet and Red face-palmed. Red instantly relaxed.

 

Violet poked Red in the head playfully,

 

“Oh my God, I knew we should have cleared it up with Grillby! Relax, fire-man, it was me.”

 

“…OH! Oh ok…” Grillby nodded his head in surprise,

 

“…it would be fine if the bird lady was you…But…wait…but they were covered in feathers…and um…you are not feathered?…”

 

“I was wearing a costume, little chicken feather wings and a painted cardboard mask…here.”

 

Violet ran to her car and slipped on some ‘wings’ with white chicken feathers. She put on the beak mask over her mouth. The mask was not perfect, but from a distance was convincing enough.

 

“I mean, I had more make-up on so it was more convincing, but you get the idea. We got the idea after Halloween.”

 

“…Oh Asgore I am sorry Red…”

 

“You thought I was cheating on Violet?”

 

“…Well…I did not want to think it…Ibut…well…I am sorry…”

 

“Honestly Grillby, I would have been suspicious if I saw you walking around with some mystery monster in the relationship clinic, too. I gues, I am glad you care.”

 

Red shrugged and smiled at the elemental. Grillby felt very much relieved.

 

“…Oh Red, it is just I respect you do much…and Violet makes you so happy…I was surprised…Still…I am sorry for prying…Can I get you both a drink on the house?...”

 

Grillby turned to walk back into the bar, ready to put the awkward encounter behind him, but Violet stepped forward rather indignantly,

 

“Wait, you do not want to know why we were in the clinic and why I was wearing a bird costume?”

 

“…Well it is not my business…I do not need to pry into your lives…”

 

Violet and Red looked at each other.

 

Red looked at Violet,

 

“It…would help me to tell someone supportive, is it ok Vi?”

 

“Yes, just not out here- I need to sit down.”

 

“Oh-Oh yes! Let’s sit down inside if it is ok?”

 

**************

 

Red, Grillby and Violet sat down at the bar. Grillby brought out some fries for the pair to apologize,

 

“…Want a couple of lagers?... I know you like them!...”

 

Red shook his head and looked panicked,

 

“Oh, um, maybe just water? Or um juice? Bananas are good for humans right? Um Grillbz, do you have banana juice?”

 

“Oh Red, dear…you know I just do not like banana juice…Bleh… How about some pineapple juice?”

 

Grillby looked at them…it was a bit early, but not that early for Red. Still, he figured they were trying to stay in shape.

 

“But won’t bananas help keep your magic up?”

 

“Humans do not have magic, and I think you are confusing us with monkeys. Humans get healthy from a mixed diet of fruits, vegetables, proteins, and carbs.”

 

 

“…Relax Red, Violet looks quite healthy, but I can bring out some berries and juice, sure…”

 

 

Grillby got the juice and fries and also brought out some blueberries for Red. Red smiled and pecked at them. He tried passing Violet a berry with his beak-she good-naturedly took it with her hand and laughed.

 

“…Well… alright…again I am sorry….”

 

Red shook his head and spoke up,

 

“Well, um, you see Grillby…there was a reason we were at the clinic. Violet was dressed up so that she would fit in. Um, I tried to have her visit my Doctor-Dr. Buzzbeak, but he disapproved of bird-monster human relations so we wanted to disguise her for the next monster doctor we met.”

 

“…He what!...”

 

I mean it was not unheard of. Grillby and Sans got plenty of stares, and often times older monsters were quite biased about monster types matching up-or monsters of the same sex matching up. Still- it was pretty unheard of for a Doctor to act that way.

 

“…Seriously that is fucked up!...We should talk to Asgore about it!...Get him fired!...”

 

“Yeah, it was weird…He was OK with my Cousin having kids with a water monster, so I guess he just isn’t cool with humans.”

 

Red looked upset. Violet patted his head,

 

“I am sorry honey, my Doctor was worse-Old Thineheart, he said I was going to Hell.”

 

Grillby’s fire spiked high in confusion.

 

“A human representation of the afterlife for sinner, complete with fire pits, demons, torture, and lava. He likened our relationship to bestiality, which is ridiculous, Red is not an animal!”

 

“…I am so sorry!... You two must be so upset…and all just to get a compatability report?...That is so unfair…”

 

Grillby looked ready to erupt.

Red nodded sheepishly,

 

“Well, it might be a little late for the compatibility report…anyway Dr. Kangroar had absolutely no problem with our relationship. We are the fifth or sixth human-monster couple she talked to, but well we are the first or second to, uh-to uh...”

 

Violet stepped in,

 

“you see- the reason we went to the doctor is because I was feeling sick. I have been gaining weight, and have this…weird feeling in my heart?”

 

Red smiled sheepishly,

 

“I keep telling you it is magic! And- well, I mean I had no idea! I mean there wasn’t an egg and she wasn’t losing feathers!”

 

“…You mean?…”

 

“It was a bit of a surprise, but we are expecting!” Red squawked happily.

 

Grillby’s flame lit up, dancing happily,

 

“…Congratulations! Red! Violet! I am so happy for you both!.…”

 

Red smiled,

 

“You are ok with it?”

 

“…Of course! Red you are one of my oldest friends!...Once you feel like telling the rest of the gang we should have a party! Heck…You are welcome to throw one here…Oh… Oh, and have a drink to celebrate!...”

 

Violet’s eyes lit up,

 

“Hold on there pal, you know humans should not drink when they are pregnant?”

 

Grillby’s flames puffed up,

 

“…Um…what…Oh right!... I do know that…I always have to remember that animal monsters are like that…such a pain to…keep up your energy though…

 

 

“Yeah, but alcohol basically poisons the fetus.”

 

“…Heh sorry…it is not really an elemental problem…so I forget sometimes…but I assure you as a bartender, I am well aware…”

 

Red turned to Grillby,

 

“But we can have a fun teetotaler party instead!”

 

“…Red…and Violet Congrats…when is the due date?…”

 

Violet smiled,

 

“About eight months form now!”

 

Red sighed,

 

“Really humans have such a long incubation time! I am used to four and a half weeks! And to think I already made a nest!”

 

 

Red pointed to his missing breast feathers. Violet sighed-her guest bed was going to be covered in red feathers and straw for years. Red smiled,

 

“Anyway, Grillbz-we’ve only told our parents so far. So keep it on the down low? Thankfully my mother was excited, and Violet’s father is ecstatic for us. We have to work on Papa Red and Violet’s Ma, though.”

 

“…Oh…”

 

Violet chimed in,

 

“They weren’t unhappy, but I think my mother just wants us to get married first-Catholic wedding with all the bells and whistles-ugh wait till you come. Red’s dad thinks I am a uh…phase, but I think once he sees how committed we are, he will change his tune.”

 

Red winced, but nuzzled into Violet.

 

Grillby wasn’t sure if he should be worried or not, but Violet and Red seemed to be ok with it-so it probably was something they felt could work out with time.

 

“…Well, my doors are always open to you…and once you tell everyone else, I know they will support you too!...”

 

“Grillby, I know it is a bit of an accident, but I feel so much better telling a friend.”

 

The group hugged, and Grillby watched as just a little piece of stress was lifted off of Red’s wing-blades. The bird continued to erratically dote on Violet-who had to bear with Red insisting she ‘nest on a pillow’ and ‘keep her magic up’ by eating fruits. Violet seemed to like it though, and as the week passed Grillby could feel their happiness grow.

 

*************

 

Before the elemental knew it, it was almost Gyftmas-time! November had passed in a flurry- and an early frost had inspired Sans and Grillby to improve their winter wardrobes. Grillby was pretty sure winter would not be any worse than Underground- he had heard the state they lived in was pretty pleasant, but they lived next to a mountain after all.

 

Sans, inspired by Grillby’s sweater, had preemptively bought Grillby a few more-another green one with stripes, a pretty blue one with a diamond pattern, and Grillby’s favorite- an extremely fuzzy black one that was so fibrous his flames had trouble not eating up.

 

Grillby had helped Sans pick out a nice orange sweater, and a green wool vest. Sans finally also conceded and bought long pants. Papyrus had almost feinted seeing his brother with his knees covered.

 

Aside form the clothes, Grillby had gone and purchased a new-used car. He had liked the Honda civic, and settled for a nice dark silver one instead of black. Sans still short cutted to and from work, but the skeleton did not mind getting the occasional lift from Grillby.

 

Sans magic seemed to be in check-mostly, although, well things were a bit worrying in one regard. Now that he was using his teleport frequently again, he was starting to notice the rare anomaly. Every hundredth or so time he jumped to work, he found himself going to the Old Lab.

 

The first time it had happened had almost given him a heart and soul-attack. Would he be sucked into the core again? He experimentally jumped back home, and was happy to find himself where he needed to be.

 

He took the bus to work that morning, but had no trouble teleporting back home. Huh? Whatever, he was just overworking.

 

The next time it happened Sans was less worried. He said hello to Dr. Worm and ried to think of the _correct_ laboratory environment. You know, the one with his personal computer and pet cactus, and not the one with creepy cobwebs and chisp dust.

 

The third time, Sans tried talking to Dr. Worm.

 

**“SANS FOUND THAT THERE ARE NO ANSWERS HERE.”**

“i know, bud, i know. i was uh wondering, paps’ girlfriend’s friend was maybe interested in getting to know you. uh, if you get bored of looking for gaster, maybe you could get to meet her?”

 

Dr. Worm’s face flickered in an out of existence for a second.

 

**“IT WAS TOO LATE FOR HIM. HE FELL INTO THE CHASM A LONG TIME AGO.”**

“look, i know you never had much luck with romance, bud, but think it over. asgore, she probably just wants a friend to chat to about magic. heh, remember, you used to be pretty good with the stuff? i mean, you’re the only monster i know that can stick in and out of things. and do not get me started with that freaky thing you do with the holes.”

 

Dr. Worm flickered a few times, and for a second looked more solid.

 

**“IT WAS. IT WAS FUN. IT WAS TOO LATE FOR HIM. HE FELL…”**

Was that? Progress? Maybe the Old man was trying to tell Sans something.

****

 

Sans decided that he would make an effort to visit Dr. Worm at least once a week to catch up. He knew he couldn’t save him from the void he was stuck in, but maybe he could get the poor monster to hold a conversation again? He remembered in one timeline he had made a bit of progress-although Flowey had seen an end to that.

 

Still, he had known Worm and Whiskers the best aside from Gaster. Whiskers was all right too-but in his current state-Sans hated to admit it, but the monster scared him. Of all the monsters from the lab, Dr. Worm was probably the easiest one to help as Sans had trouble ever finding Ficus and Kid. He had only ever randomly met them since the incident.

 

He brought Worm a little mini Gyftmas tree and a book on astronomy to read. The monster could not touch the pages, or even turn the cover, but was able to phase into it. Sans wondered if he liked it?

 

***

 

The small skeleton did not make a ton of progress with his conversations, but he found that purposefully visiting once a week prevented the forced teleport. Maybe…

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No need to worry about Grillby and Sans' health at this point-if Gerson can't do them in, they can survive anything.


	51. Gyftmas part 1!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It is finally Gyftmas time, and the skeleton brothers and Grillby prep the house for a visit from some friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, this should have come out last week. Just finished a big project in lab, and my PI has been needing some data...so less time to write than I wanted. I want another chapter out this week, hopefully Sunday.
> 
>  
> 
> I feel like Grllby would feel like a kid at a candy store at a Christmas tree farm :D

 

It was a week before Gyftmas and Sans took Grillby to meet Dr. Worm. Apparently the humans were also used to taking the time off, so Sans had no problem getting a whole ten days to visit Grillby’s family and other friends for Gyftmas and the New Year-apparently he had a weeks’ worth of vacation on top of the fact that human Christmas eve, Christmas, and New Years were just off for the whole building Sans worked in.

 

Grillby would have the bar open till the day before Gyftmas eve, but would have short hours. Red wanted the time, so he was leaving the bird in charge the week after. Grillby was a bit worried for the pair,

 

Grillby was taking the visit to meet Worm pretty well. Sans had cleaned the lab up, removing the cobwebs, bringing a bed from the true lab into the room Dr. Worm kept spawning in and adding some Gyftmas lights so that the guy wasn’t sitting in darkness. Sometimes Worm spawned near the core, too, but Sans figured this was at least closer to a house. Anyway, now that the counters were clean and the computer was running again, Sans figured it was nice enough to take Grillby.

 

The elemental smiled at the shadowy monster.

 

“…Hello…it is nice to meet your Dr. Worm…Sans has told me you used to work together…and you are currently searching for G.0o..0r…”

 

Sans spoke up,

 

“yeah, this is grillby, he owns a bar on the surface now instead of snowdin. we’ve almost been dating for a year, but well-we’ve been friends since after the incident. he’s amazing.”

 

Dr. Worm flickered and seemed to smile.

 

 ***Well,** **They say he is brilliant.**

At this point Sans was not sure if they meant the other followers or Gaster.

 

“heh, thanks that is sweet of you guys! anyway, gyftmas is almost here, so i’m gonna be at grillby’s family’s home. i’ll visit before the new year, but uh, i was wondering if i can do anything for you and the others? i-i mean i am not sure you guys can stop what you are doing at this point, but uh, yah know?”

 

***This place…this place…let this place...**

After a minute, Dr. Worm looked frustrated, his shadowy form flickered incessantly.

***I understand my words have been cut short**

***It has been so long…makes it hard to… gossip**

“thanks for talking to me though, even if it is frustrating. i can tell you want to tell me about the lab. i know you do not want me searching for answers here. but is it more than that?”

 

Dr. Worm faded in and out and nodded emphatically.

 

***The core…Let the core…**

Dr. Worm frowned.

 

The group sat in silence for a minute, so Sans pulled out a box.

 

“uh, i got this for you, let me just unwrap it for ya.”

Sans opened the present Papyrus had carefully wrapped in red paper- and gave Dr. Worm a Santa hat. The doctor smiled as the color drained from the hat. It faded into grey and started to flicker on his head, but it fit well and looked cosy.

 

* **This…This…**

 

Dr. Worm repeated the phrase. Sans reached out to touch him and he faded away.

*********************************

 

Grillby and Sans went home to enjoy some Gyftmas decorating. It was past three o’ clock and Papyrus was home from his second job. Aside from the life drawing classes he was not getting as many modeling jobs now that Halloween was over- but had managed to get one at a certain store, dressing as Santa.

 

“APPARENTLY I LOOK LIKE A FAMOUS GYFTMAS SKELETON IN A HUMAN MOVIE! WELL, I HAD TO PUT SOME MAKEUP ON FOR THE TEETH, BUT NILE AND I ARE GOING TO WATCH THE MOVIE TO GET IN THE HOLIDAY MOOD!”

 

Papyrus was still wearing the Santa hat and black lipstick used to make his teeth look cartoonish. The tall skeleton was decorating the house with rainbow lights, winding them along the ceiling and windows. He also hung a strange berry plant over archways and wreaths on doors. He had handmade the wreaths with Nile from pine branches, ribbons, and pinecones they ‘harvested’ from the woods.

 

Well, most of the wreaths had pinecones.

 

Papyrus, holding a second trail of light he intended to place on the bannister, was lecturing Grillby on not eating the decorations as he caught the elemental snagging a few off of the one on Sans’ room.

 

“TORIEL, FRISK, AND THE DINO-FISH FAMILY ARE COMING OVER LATER! WHAT WILL THEY THINK IF THE DOORS DO NOT MATCH!”

 

Grillby defiantly had his arms crossed,

 

“…I am just saying…If someone hung a fresh ham sandwich on a lettuce display at your door…wouldn’t you be tempted to eat it?...I just thought you were being nice!...”

 

“IMAGINE IT IS A DECORATIVE SANDWICH!”

 

“…a decorative sandwich?...who keeps decorative sandwiches?…”

 

“OK, I SEE YOUR POINT, BUT COULD YOU JUST REPLACE IT WITH SOMETHING ELSE FESTIVE, NYEH?”

 

Thus Sans’ door had holiday candles on it instead of pinecones.

 

It actually looked nice enough that Papyrus asked Grillby to put some on the front door wreath, too. Then, Grillby remembered that he had some other decorations, and with some help from Sans, nabbed them from his apartment.

 

****

 

Grillby and Sans were bobbing along to holiday music from MTT TV as they helped decorate, Mettaton had released a new Holiday music video, and was currently singing in a tight purple Santa suit. Papyrus’s eye sockets went wide and he hastily grabbed more decorations while texting Nile.

 

_“Cans you tell/ I’ve got the Gyftmas spirit/why don’t you come share it with me?_

_I wanna yell/ Let’s shout we’ve got the Gyftmas spirit/come shout it with me!_

_Oh Baby/ Shout it with me!/ G-Y-F-T- GYFTMAS!/ I have a special gift for you/oo ooh oooooooo/ GYFTMAS!_

 

This was sung to a very catchy pop tune, and was actually popular enough with the humans that Sans had heard it in stores at least twice.

 

Sans had always thought Mettaton was a bit full of himself, but it was still really special to see a fellow monster breaking into mainstream.

 

Sans smiled as the song continued and the camera and multi colored spotlight miraculously shifted away from Mettaton for a split second. The skeleton pointed as he spotted a tall shirtless human and Jimmy Hotpants dancing in the background of the video with gyftrot antler headbands and red velvet pants with little bells. Nabstablook was also in the background with an audio deck, but he just had an ethereal Santa hat on.

 

Grillby smiled less at Jimmy, until Sans squeezed his hand, and twirled him around to dance to the tune instead.

 

There was not a lot of space in the living room, but the pair jokingly twirled a bit before bumping into the table. Sans gave Grillby a quick kiss.

 

“HEY IF YOU ARE GOING TO SMOOCH AT LEAST FO IT UNDER THE MISTLETOE!”

 

“mistletoe?”

 

“YES YOU STAND UNDER THE PLAN I PUT ON THE DOORWAY. WHEN TWO MONSTERS STAND UNDER IT AT THE SAME TIME THEY HAVE TO KISS! IT IS A HUMAN CHRISTMAS TRADITION.”

 

Grillby dragged Sans to the mistletoe and the two smooched-

 

“NOT REALLY SURE WHY A POISONOUS PARASITIC PLANT IS ROMANTIC TO HUMANS, BUT MAYBE IT IS A METAPHOR?”

 

Grillby and Sans were still smooching.

 

“I MEAN, MAYBE IT IS JUST HARD TO FIND PLANTS IN WINTER BUT-”

 

Grillby and Sans were having a grand time,

 

“BUT MAYBE YOU TWO NEED TO GO _EXERCISE_?”

 

*****

 

Grillby’s flames bounced up and down happily to the rest of the MTT holiday music (mostly Mettaton remixing other Holiday Songs) as he placed down some decorations- unsurprisingly a lot of candles, a gyftrot figurine, a decorative tablecloth, and a Santa figurine that had been modified to have horns and goat tail-to look more like the King of all Monsters.

 

It was really coming along, but something was missing.

 

“I NEED TO FINISH DEOCRATING SO I CAN MAKE HORS D’OUEVERS! CAN YOU TWO PICK OUT A SMALL TREE?”

 

“huh, what do you mean pick out a tree, bro?”

 

“WELL, THERE ARE NO PINE TREES ON THE STREET- THAT IS WHY NILE AND MYSELF HAD TO GO TO THE PARK TO GET THE STUFF FOR THE WREATHS! HUMANS SELL SMALL TREES YOU CAN USE IN YOUR HOMES.”

 

“huh, why not just decorate the birch tree in the front yard?”

 

“SANS HAVE YOU EVER READ THE MONSTER’S HOLIDAY GUIDE?”

 

“is that by the same guy that published that stupid dating advice book?”

 

“IT IS EXCELLENT DATING ADVICE! ANYWAY, YOU NEED IT TO BE A FIR TREE OF SOME KIND. IT IS TRADITIONAL! BESIDES, THE WHOLE POINT IS TO USE A PRETTY TREE WITH LEAVES.”

 

“i s’pose, but, i’m just saying it would be a lot less effort to just put lights on the birch tree…”

 

“SANS SKELETON! DO YOU NOT WANT THE HOUSE TO LOOK NICE FOR TORIEL? “

 

“…It is ok Sans…I can drive…Papyrus can you tell me where one of these tree farms are?...”

 

***

Grillby was so happy to have a car back, and Sans enjoyed curling up in the front seat, in the warm toasty car as a warm toasty Grillby smoothly and slowly transported him to the farm. Sans was a bit of a monsterling when he was in a vehicle, and after a long week of working extra hard in lab, could not help but take a short nap.

 

Grillby smiled, and gently poked him awake. The tree farm was only open for another forty minutes so they had to move quickly.

 

Grillby talked to an older human woman, who handed him a handsaw and pointed out a good group of trees.

 

“You boys are lucky! Last year it snowed before Christmas, and everyone was struggling up that hill to get their tree! This year we have Douglas fir, Norwegian pine, and Blue Spruce-but we close in forty minutes, so do not keep an old lady standing here in the cold!”

 

Even without the snow the hill was a bit steep- Grillby sometimes forgot that the mountains they lived near were actually quite big, it was hard to always appreciate them when he spent so much time running between work and home these days.

 

A dirt path led up the hill- pocked with muddy boot indents and bits of pine needles, and rope. Grillby and Sans had forgotten rope, but luckily, it was included in the cost of the tree.

 

As they climbed the hill, they noticed that there were rows upon rows of pine trees, some big, some small, and a few on the edges that had grown too large for any house. Most looked nice, but there were a few dead ones, a few crooked ones, and a few with big bare patches to one side.

 

“…OK…we need to get a nice big tree with lots of healthy branches…no mold…”

 

Papyrus had given Sans instructions of ones with “STURDY BRANCHES FOR LOTS OF LIGHTS!”

 

Sans wondered if he should get a fireproof one instead with all the electrical wiring running amok in their house.

 

“…Hmm…this Douglass fir looks pretty tasty…It has lots of tiny pinecones…oh no wait, and bird poop on it…and a nest…I would hate to have some bird lose their home…scavenging food is difficult…”

 

“you know paps wont let you eat it till after new years right?”

 

“…The aging process will make it even more delicious…”

 

Grillby obviously could not drool, but Sans was wondering if the extra sparks around his mouth were an equivalent.

 

Sans was thinking he would definitely need a fireproof tree.

 

***

 

The pair settled on a tree that was a little taller than Papyrus- a nice Blue Spruce with strong branches.

 

Sans and Grillby worked together to move the saw back and forth-but it was a fairly young tree, and in no time the pair felled it and were carrying it down the hill, Grillby with the trunk end and Sans doing his best with the top end as every single branch tried to make a home in his eye socket.

 

“hey grillbz, i can’t _see-der_ very well, so i need you to steer.”

 

The two laughed and traded tree puns, before paying the owner of the farm for the tree and tying it to the roof of Grillby’s small car. Honda Civics did not come with any roof racks, so they had to roll the windows down to loop the rope inside the car-in one back window and out the other.

 

It was a bit odd looking, but it was tied tight. The wind coming in through the top of the windows aggravated Grillby’s flame, but he drove slowly enough that it was no bother.

 

****

 

As the two got back and pulled the tree into the living room, it looked like Papyrus had not even started decorating the outside of the house, but had instead doubled down inside, with several strands now over every doorway. The inside was so bright and rain-bowed that even Grillby was magically squinting as he stepped inside.

 

Sans grabbed the lamps and put them in a closet for the season.

 

Papyrus was now running outside to start the out-door decorations, in a bit of a panic,

 

“OOH GREAT TREE!” Papyrus did not look at the tree as and a large box of lights blurred past.

 

“…Hey Papyrus…do you want some help with cooking?…”

 

Papyrus nodded gratefully, so the two started making some holiday treats. Well-Grillby cooked while Sans wrestled a grumpy Catsup away from the Christmas ornaments on the bottom branches of the tree. The skeleton took great care to pick up the ornaments Catsup had wrestled off, he did not want the new ornaments to break.

 

When they were Underground they had not had their own Gyftmas tree, just one in the main square, and most of the ornaments on it belonged to the families of Snowden.

 

Sans had enjoyed picking some out this year with Papyrus earlier in the week-they started with what they could find in the store: simple balls with two of each color (pink, purple, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, cyan, gold, and white), silver metal tinsel shaped ones, a fluffy bunny shaped ornament for Papyrus, and a horribly ugly and tacky skeleton skull with a top hat that Undyne had given them.

 

Of course on top was a pretty gold star as well-for Sans. It was still a little bare bones- Sans tried spacing the ornaments out to help. Thankfully, Frisk and Toriel were going to teach them how to make homemade Gyftmas ornaments, so that would help it out.

 

As Sans re-placed the last ornament and stepped away, Catsup and the tiny cursed Cat figurine started to circle the tree. Catsup pounced- and Sans caught him in his arms!

 

But, after Catsup, the tiny cursed cat figurine jumped on a low hanging branch, and ran up the leaves to one of the pink ornaments, biting it, giving it a small crack near the hook.

 

Sans let go of Catsup and picked up the tiny biting cursed cat figurine,

 

“why did you guys keep this again?”

 

“IT IS ADORABLE!” Papyrus shouted from the open front door.

 

Papyrus accidently wrapped his own leg into the birch tree-and Sans was wondering how many lights the skeleton had bought.

 

“REEOW!”

 

As soon as Catsup realized he had a chance, he pounced at the lower branches again.

 

Sans sighed and suddenly the cat, the cat figurine, and the tree were covered in blue gravity magic.

 

The skeleton then re arranged the ornaments to the upper branches only while the two cats were hissing in the timeout zone. He put some sticky tape on the injured ornament, and put it at the very top, next to the star. He placed the tacky skeleton ornament on the bottom secretly hoping the cats would get it.

 

“…Good work Sans…”

 

Grillby stepped out of the kitchen holding three mugs,

 

“…here test this treat…hot chocolate…with cinnamon sticks… the kids are going to love it…”

 

Catsup and mini-cat were released. Catsup waddled to the tree took a bat and it and walked away defeated, while mini cat attempted to jump relentlessly to the lowest branch. Sans smiled and took a cup of cocoa.

 

Grillby’s homemade hot chocolate smelled delicious, and had been carefully crafted so that the generous layer of half melted mini marshmallows were both browned to perfection and sprinkled with cinnamon.

 

Still Sans frowned,

 

“aww but you can’t drink it!”

 

“…But it is nice to watch you enjoy it…besides I have my own version”

 

Grillby’s cup was more solid, with a chocolate powder mixture and several marshmallow layers instead.

 

Sans sipped the hot chocolate-it was a bit scorching, but Sans smiled and leaned into Grillby. The sticky sweet marshmallows stuck to his teeth, and he licked them off magically. The small skeleton smiled, looking at Grillby’s hair, which was happily roaring. The diet of wood products was helping the bartender’s flames keep a healthy yellow glow. Grillby’s hair was also peppered with little blue flecks of flame, but unless you looked carefully you would not notice it. Sans hugged Grillby,

 

“well, i have a special treat ready for you, too!”

 

“…heheh…well Ok…But let me finish with the gingerbread mini-bites and the mackerel and cheese plate for the guests…when did you make it?...”

 

“i prepped it last night- gyftmas salad!” Sans was beaming. He had been a bit tense after working late last night, so a bit of cooking had helped him relax before bed.

 

“…Salad…”

 

Grillby was a bit disappointed. He knew he was still on a diet, but there wasn’t anything Gyftmas-y about salad.

 

As Grillby put the finishing touches of frosting on the tiny gingerbread hearts Sans pulled a Tupperware out of the fridge. It was filled fresh holly leaves and sticks cut into little medallions. There were also walnuts, and grated cheddar cheese.

 

“…Huh…I guess Holly is associated with the season up here…”

 

Grillby took a curious bite. It was DELICIOUS!

 

Munch munch munch.

 

 

“…this is actually really sweet tasting?...I am thinking of a dessert…”

 

The fire family was planning a big Gyftmas dinner, and Grillby and Sans were making dessert.

 

 

****

 

Last week Grillby had entered a local human baking competition for Ginger bread houses. His magnificent mosaic volcano temple, with sugar lava had actually won 3rd. He had carefully placed each gingerbread tile on top of a mixture of yellow, red or orange sugar glass, and the effect was quite pretty. He even made little sugar blown vulcins making magma-men and fire-skiing off the side. The vulcins came out a little blobby, but thankfully the human judges interpreted it as ‘little fire kids making fire snowmen and sledding.’

 

He had not won, but the competition had taught Grillby that he had some learning to do. His structure had been nice, but he had only shown off three sugar techniques, the glass, the blown figures, and some piping.

 

The person who had won had had all those elements, and incorporated several shaped swans in their beautiful Gingerbread Lake and magical ballet inspired forest, complete with an enormous sugar work tree and delicate piped snowflakes. Grillby also had to admit, their piece matched the theme a bit more, even if he thought lava was pretty Gyftmas-ey, it had perhaps lost a point or two in translation.

 

He had also been pleasantly surprised at the positive reception, and while one nasty human had declared it cheating that he could shape sugar in his hands and laughed that his idea of ‘a perfect Holiday’ involved a volcano, most had been supportive. He had even been asked if he wanted to join the local novice sugar working class from the winner… he had signed up for the January class and was thinking about asking Sans.

 

***

Anyway, he hoped to make something nice for Gyftmas dinner. The two had some time, so Grillby and Sans prototyped a tasty fire-cupcake with orange, pistachio, and Holly bits. For non-fire monsters, Grillby left out the Holly. Grillby carefully added the a zesty orange icing to the top of all, in the shape of an orange. And added a decorative holly leaf to the top of each.

 

“…Wow…the Holly really pairs well with the orange and pistachio…and for you Sans…Do you think the mint and pistachio cupcakes also taste good?…”

 

“i love it! never would have thought pistachio would go well with citrus? But well, i’m nuts for it!”

 

“…let me make a few for the kids…”

 

 

*******

As Papyrus clunked around on the roof with the lights, Nile came home with some groceries.

 

_“PAPYRUS! PLEASE BE CAREFUL UP THERE!”_

“NYEH HEH HEH, I-PAPYRUS AM QUITE DEXTEROUS, SO DO NOT WORRY-”

 

Papyrus slipped off the roof as he leaned his head too far off to talk to Nile, thankfully, he landed in a mostly cushioning bush.

 

 _“OH PY!”_ Nile ran up to Papyrus who leapt up, to show he was fine-bits of twig in this arm bone.

_“YOU BE CAREFUL! YOUR FACE IS FINALLY STARTING TO HEAL!”_

“OK, I WILL BE MORE CAREFUL, BUT I JUST WANT TO SURPRISE FRISK AND TORIEL! THEY ARE SUCH GOOD FRIENDS! AND WE HAVE NOT GOTTEN TO SEE THEM FOR QUITE A WHILE WITH ALL THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCED THEY KEEP GOING TO.”

 

Nile smiled, her teeth gleaming,

 

_“I HAVE A SPECIAL TREAT FOR YOU! I THINK IT WILL GET THAT HP UP AGAIN! BUT YOU HAVE TO PROMISE TO BE CAREFUL UP THERE!”_

 

“OOH! A PRESENT! FOR ME! NILE YOU ARE THE GREATEST! LET ME JUST FINISH UP!”

 

 

The tall skeleton resumed his rooftop adventure, while Nile quickly started making cheese biscuits with bacon bits, dandelion green-and spinach puffs (Tori loved dandelion greens), and the piece-de-resistance homemade eggnog. She set these on the table while Sans set out the mackerel and cheese plate, the gingerbread cookie plate, mugs with hot cocoa and some signature cheese fries. The cheese fries were not super-festive, but well, it was a favorite among guests.

_“OK, WE ARE ALL READY FOR GUESTS!”_

“GUESTS? ARE THEY HERE?”

Papyrus proceeded to fall off the roof a second time, this time making it worse by attempting to use his blue gravity magic-which only pushed him down more quickly.

 

Papyrus got up a little more slowly this time, his HP reduced and his battle theme starting to play

 

-da da duh duh, da da duh duh- Do DO Do DOO-”

 

“bro, let me finish putting the lights up.”

 

Sans put the last strand of lights up in about ten seconds with gravity magic. There were so many lights that Sans was pretty sure they were in danger of contacting alien life.

 

_“PY! COME HERE AND DRINK THIS! IT WILL HEAL YOU A BIT!”_

“HUH, BUT I AM PERFECTLY FINE-”

 

Nile brought the stubborn skeleton a glass of her homemade eggnog, with a cinnamon stick swirled in the glass to create a spiral design on top.

 

Papyrus took a sip…

 

“OH MY GOODNESS NILE, THIS IS SO GOOD. IT IS LIKE MILK? BUT EXTRA SWEET! IS IT A SPEIAL EGYPTIAN DISH?”

 

_“NOPE! EGGNOG, A HUMAN TREAT! IT HAS MILK, CLOVES, VANILLA, CINNAMON, EGGS, SUGAR, CREAM, VANILLA, NUTMEG, AND A LITTLE SOMETHING SPECIAL FOR THE ADULTS!”_

“OH WOW IT IS SO GOOD, NYEH HEH HEH!, CAN I HAVE ANOTHER GLASS?- ALSO SOMETHING EXTRA? LIKE MORE SUGAR?”

 

 

********

 

The group sat around the couch, the guests should be by soon, especially since Undyne always liked to be fashionably early- a task that was now more difficult with three small monsterlings.

 

The group talked about their holiday plans.

 

“SO ALPHYS SAYS SHE HAS A SURPRISE FOR US, AND WE NEED TO KEEP THESE DAYS BETWEEN GYFTMAS AND NEW YEAR FREE.”

 

“did she mention what the surprise would entail?”

 

“WELL, ALPHYS IS EASILY PRESSURED TO REVEAL SECRETS, SO I TRY NOT TO ASK HER. SHE DID SAY THAT WE WOULD NEED WARM CLOTHES.”

 

“or a warm friend.”

 

Sans hugged Grillby.

 

“…Well..as long as you are still down for Gyftmas eve and morning with my parents…they are happy to have you two as well…”

 

_“I AM SO EXCITED TO MEET YOUR FAMILY, GRILLBY!”_

 

“…It is a shame you will miss the fire elemental fire concert the day before, but I understand…”

 

The whole group would be coming for the late night and the morning after-but Papyrus and Nile were also attempting contact with Nile’s family the day before much to Sans disbelief.

 

“didn’t they try to kill you…twice?”

 

“WELL, MAIM…I GUESS THE MASK COULD HAVE BEEN LETHAL- BUT SOBEK IS NICE, AND I THINK KUK IS GOING TO TURN OVER A NEW LEAF.”

 

“a new leaf?”

 

_“PY, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO COME-I DO NOT EVEN WANT TO VISIT THEM.”_

“WELL, I JUST THINK IT IS WORTH STARTING OVER IF WE CAN, AND BESIDES, IT IS JUST LUNCH. HOW MUCH CAN YOUR FAMILY KILL ME IN A TWO HOUR WINDOW?”

 

Sans tried not to jump in and explain how that would be possible. Or imagine Papyrus being attacked by mummies.

 

“ok, just text me every once in a while so i know you are ok!”

 

“I DO NOT THINK THAT IS NECESSARY BROTHER BUT, I SUPPOSE IF IT MAKES YOU WORRY LESS.”

 

The group sipped some more eggnog, when finally the doorbell rang.


	52. In which Sans struggles to complete an arts and crafts project

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The monsters spend some time with the Fish family and Toriel and Frisk before the holidays.

Frisk practically ran through the door to give Papyrus a hug, while Toriel practically tiptoed into the house to avoid bumping them. Behind Toriel, was a human in black glasses and a suit who was smiling sternly.

 

“Hello! It is so nice to see everyone! Frisk and I have been so busy with conferences and meetings- and then the end of the semester school holiday parade- we have barely had time for many visits with friends.”

 

Toriel was smiling but Sans could see she had bags under her eyes. She also had a bandage on the upper part of her arm.

 

“Oh, and I would like to introduce our new friend J.T. He is helping out as a body guard, the human government has hired him for us after a little incident.”

 

J.T. walked in-it was funny to Sans that the human was guarding Tori, I mean he was a large fellow, and the black glasses and suit made him look very professional, but the Queen was much larger than he was. He also lacked horns and probably fire powers.

 

J.T. smiled,

 

“It is a pleasure to meet all of you. I will protect the Queen with my life.”

 

Each monster reacted differently to the new human. Papyrus- oddly enough- seemed to be sizing him up, although J.T. was taller and more muscular than Papyrus-a fact the skeleton was keenly aware of. Papyrus had offered to be the Queen’s Guard several times…so it was a bit understandable that his smile faded a bit. Grillby and Nile, oblivious to this, waved happily and offered him a cookie-further causing Papyrus to pout. Sans immediately used judgment- and could find no fault-the guy had even apologized for cheating on a test in third grade-when really he had only accidently looked at the other paper. Sans smiled and waved lazily.

 

“Now, now child, I hope you do not have to do anything so drastic. I am sorry to have to drag you around everywhere a silly old lady wants to go.”

 

J.T. was just happy that his client liked to go to pie shops, yarn barns, and elementary schools and not some locations his last clients had enjoyed.

 

The bodyguard shook hands with everyone as they introduced themselves. Grillby was impressed that he shook his hand without flinching-most humans, and even most monsters flinched the first time.

 

The human walked stood behind and slightly to the left of Toriel, positioning himself to have a view of the outside as well as the area around Tori, crossing his arms. He also seemed to be smelling the house-was that, a human thing?

 

“uh, does the house smell, uh bad?”

 

Maybe humans were like dog monsters and their noses were extra sensitive?

 

“AH SORRY, THE SMELL IS PROBABLY FROM SANS’ ROOM, NEH HEH HEH.”

 

“Oh, heh, it is embarrassing, but security guards are supposed to smell the area for electrical fires or gas leaks…um but your house mostly smells like pine trees and uh, burnt pinecones.”

 

Papyrus looked at Grillby, who had totally not eaten any more pinecones.

 

J.T. moved to the side and crossed his arms.

 

Frisk, jokingly stood next to the guy looking tough. Frisk then tugged at the guys shirt. The security guard cracked into a smile, and ruffled Frisk’s hair and gave them his black glasses. Frisk put them on and immediately crossed their arms and ran to show Papyrus how cool he looked. Papyrus ran upstairs to get his own old sunglasses.

 

Sans tried to get a look at his eyes, but the bodyguard had a second pair inside his jacket…and something else inside his jacket.

 

************

 

The doorbell rang, and before anyone could answer, was thrown open, causing J.T. to take a step in front of Tori.

 

Undyne, Alphys, Damini, Rinan, and Nariko leapt inside for hugs and Gyftmas greetings.

 

Undyne looked at everyone-

 

“AWW sweet sunglasses at night party! I left mine at home, though!”

 

“Uhm-he-he-hello everyone, Tori-I s-s-see you brought a new friend?”

 

Alphys stammered a hello to J.T., while Undyne eyed him suspiciously.

 

“Yes, this is my friend J.T., he was appointed by the human government to help me out. J.T., these are my good friend Alphys, Undyne, and their monsterlings Damini, Rinan, and Nariko-Alphys was Royal scientist Underground, and I have told you Undyne was captain of the Royal Guard.”

 

J.T. politely shook their hands. The human and Undyne were close in height, and if Papyrus had been sizing J.T. up, Undyne was outright trying to intimidate him.

 

“It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, as her Majesty speaks very highly of you.”

 

“Well, anyone who protects Tori, is a friend of mine.”

 

Undyne’s good eye looked like it was going to pierce through J.T.’s skull.

 

The two continued to lock eyes…

 

_“SO! WHO WANTS TO TRY SOME TASTY GYFTMAS TREATS?”_

 

***

 

The monsters sat around the couch, enjoying the snacks. Nile was very excited; none of the food she had made was rotten one bit! It had been rather ashen lately.

 

Undyne and Nariko, and Damini, ripped into the cheese biscuits with bacon bits and the mackerel plate. Tori, Alphys, and Rinan, on the other hand, were partial to the dandelion and spinach puffs and gingerbread cookies. Frisk tried a bit of everything, but pointedly ignored the spinach puffs- instead going for the cheese fries.

 

“NYEH HEH HEH, SO HUMANS LIKE CHEESE FRIES, HUH?”

 

Frisk nodded enthusiastically.

 

Toriel nodded,

 

“Ever since we got to the surface, this little one has been obsessed with mac-and- cheese over any vegetable. I wish they would eat their greens though.”

 

Frisk made a pained face and stuck their tongue out at the spinach puffs .

 

“Can’t blame you on the snails, kid. But spinach is good for you-helps you build muscle!”

 

Undyne glared at J.T.,

 

“Hey, is being a picky eater a human thing? Sit down and have something to eat-you have just been standing there!”

 

The human looked at Toriel.

 

“Uh, sorry I am on duty, but if Queen Toriel is ok with it, I would love to try your delicious smelling cooking.”

 

Papyrus, who had been eyeing J.T coolly beamed happily at the compliment.

 

“Please, have something! Enjoy yourself, I do not think there is any danger here.”

 

The security guard looked out the window one more time before eagerly taking a small plate with a piece of everything. Frisk shook their head as the older human took a spinach puff. The security guard avoided the eggnog, but had a spare hot chocolate.

 

“Can’t drink on duty!”

 

“…Well…If you are ever off duty, you should come to my bar…”

 

“Oh wow! You run a bar?”

 

J.T. and Grillby talked about the bar, while J.T. complimented Grillby and Nile on their cooking as he tried it.

 

“Wow! You monsters know how to cook! I mean, I love my mother’s cooking, but these flavor combos are great!”

 

Frisk watched in horror as J.T. ate the spinach and dandelion green puff.

 

“Delicious! The pastry is so flaky and crisp!”

 

Frisk eyed the puffs, and slipping the glasses on tried one…

 

 

***

What started out as a bit of an awkward party, got a bit better.

 

Frisk brought out their arts and crafts box, and some glass clear balls. Frisk had brought glass paint, paintbrushes, glitter, Popsicle sticks, glue, pom poms, ribbon, hooks, and a whole lot more- and instructed everyone how to make a few different ornament types.

 

Sans smiled at Tori,

 

“did frisk learn this at school?”

 

Toriel nodded her head no,

 

“They have arts and crafts at school, but Frisk seems to have learned this from the old human school they went to…I cannot get them to tell me where there old home is…and the human authorities decided it would be best if Frisk just stayed with us, considering there were no missing children in any state that matched the description.”

 

Toriel frowned; she suspected that Frisk had been abandoned-or worse. Still, she was more than happy to provide a loving home. She hoped…she was doing something right. Frisk smiled at her,

 

“Hey mom, can you show me how to do that cool bow shape?”

 

Toriel’s soul melted with happiness as she showed a bouncing Frisk how to tie a fancy bow.

 

***************

Everybody had some fun making a different style ornament. Frisk showed Papyrus that putting a mixture of glue and glitter into a glass ball could coat the inside for a sparkly effect. Thus, Papyrus made a ‘Fierce Monster’ with pink glitter and a ‘Cool dude’ ornament with orange glitter.

 

“Orange is the coolest color.”

 

Grillby agreed with the sentiment, and filled a ball with orange glitter. He shaped the head to look sort of like spiky flames. Then he tried using some paint to make the flames yellow.

 

“…It is a meteor…”

 

“SUPER FESTIVE!”

 

Sans, who was not always the most imaginative, took some of the popsicle sticks, and without trimming any glued them to make a stick deer with some antlers. Sans added a little bow around its neck, some googly eyes, a red pom-pom nose and blue pipe cleaner antlers.

 

“NICE SPIDER SANS!”

 

“thanks bro, but it is a deer.”

 

“Oh my Sans, well why don’t I make it a sweater? Most deer I know wear sweaters!”

 

“uh”

 

Toriel was not making ornaments but she helped make a little felt shirt and pants for the quadrapedal deer. Sans added a hook and on the tree it went. It then snapped in half, as the glue was not set properly.

 

A few of the monsterlings started to look teary eyed at the broken deer, so Sans decided to fix it up.

 

T.J stood behind the couch watching the perimeter the whole time, but while he was standing twisted some pipe cleaners into a star shape.

 

Rinan also made a deer, and Sans was embarrassed to say it was better than his, the monsterling carefully glued the popsicles together, and painted them to look more like a gyftrot, complete with a few present in the antlers. Undyne and Alphys beamed at their child prodigy.

 

Damini asked Grillby to help shape her glass ball into a fish shape, which Grillby did his best with-making a sort of fat tuna fish. Damini held one paintbrush with her fin hand, and used her tail fin as a second brush-which alarmed Undyne and Alphys until Frisk let them know it was non-toxic paint. The paint job was a bit sloppy, but a yellow and blue fish ornament looked pretty good.

 

Sans gave up with the glue and instead used a pipe cleaner infrastructure to give his deer monster some connectivity…now it looked like a fat fuzzy deer/ marshmallow hybrid. Maybe some pom poms would help?

 

Nile simply painted her ornament, created a snowy mountain scene, with a log cabin, and a mummy and skeleton holding hands. Papyrus and Nile nuzzled together on the couch and just ate snacks after that, admiring the simple yet elegant decoration.

 

Nariko was less interested in making crafts, but Frisk showed them how to make a star out of Popsicle sticks without any glue. Nariko made a few stars and then started throwing them around the house-the stars would burst into sticks again, and then Nariko would spend ten minutes fixing them. Undyne-who had managed to make a spear ornament with Popsicle sticks, glitter, and pipe cleaners before getting bored, joined Nariko in tossing tiny wood stars around.

 

Sans was now in the editing process. The pom poms had helped, until he added them to the sweater, too. Now the deer was even more spherical. Could he but the pom poms in half? Maybe brush them out a bit?

 

Papyrus-due to a mixture of wanting to be a good Soul parent and having a second eggnog used his gravity magic to make a line of white and blue bone attacks. His battle tune played faintly while the bone attacks slowly scrolled around the wall of the room. He was careful to trigger the GUI with Undyne, who did not mind the black background, or occasionally scrolling to attack as long as she got to throw things. Nariko and Undyne charged at the bone attacks and had fun trying to knock them down from a distance with Popsicle throwing stars as Papyrus made different patterns.

 

Alphys sighed as the other monsterlings discovered the art of making the Popsicle stick throwing stars- and had fun flinging them at Papyrus’ blue attack bones.

 

Sans was concerned the wall might get a few scratches, but decided it was Papyrus’s fault and that he could re-paint it. Also Mr. Deer needed a more even coat- and then if he strengthened the antlers…

 

J.T. watched in wonder as the magic bones danced around the wall. The music made it more fun, almost like a carnival game, but Papyrus’ orange glowing eyes were a bit disturbing.

 

Grillby decided to help Sans by shaping the deer's horns a bit...and now the deer was on fire...As Sans put the fire out, it actually gave the horns a shiny look, not bad...He hung it on the tree.

 

Papyrus decided to do a finally! All the bones turned blue and a very tiny Gaster blaster appeared ans zoomed in the pattern. The tiny blaster did not shoot any lasers but bounced around the top of the bones. All the little monsterlings tried to hit it as it zoomed up and down, Nariko jumped and almost hit it with her tail, Rinan tossed a star slightly to the left, and Frisk slightly to the right. Damini threw a triple blast of three stars! Triple attack GOOO!

 

*CRASH

 

It was all fun and games until Damini knocked over the cookies with a popsicle star. The gingersnaps went flying into the monsters, the floor, Catsup’s waiting mouth…one hit Sans' ornament causing it to fall...and break a Popsicle leg.

 

That being said, she did manage to hit the little blaster!

 

Papyrus-realizing this was a bit too much poofed the GUI and bones away as he and Undyne ended their play fight.

 

“CONGRATS! BUT GAME OVER! EVERYMONSTER WINS!”

 

Alphys decided they needed to wind down.

 

“H-hey kids h-how about a Gyftmas story upstairs?”

 

The monsterlings ran upstairs.

 

“S-Sans and Papyrus, Do you mind- you don’t mind could I let them take a nap?”

 

Sans and Papyrus agreed it was good to get them settled down.

 

Papyrus’s racecar bed was popular for story-time, and in penance for riling them up papyrus agreed to let them take a nap there. Thus, Nile, Papyrus, and Alphys read the monsterlings the unabridged tales of Fluffy Bunny’s Christmas caper-with Papyrus reading Fluffy Bunny, Nile co-starring as ‘Shy Bunny’ and ‘Grumpy Hedgehog,’ and Alphys as Narrator. It was a good performance, but only Frisk managed to stay awake to the final act.

 

 

***

Meanwhile, Sans, T.J., Undyne, and Grillby cleaned up the chaos that was the arts and crafts project, and the remainder of the cookies.

 

Toriel went into the kitchen to put the pie she had made for later away, while Undyne grabbed the roasted fish she had made and ran into the kitchen.

 

“Toriel, can I talk to you for a second-privately?” Undyne hurriedly finished vacuuming the last of the cookie crumbs and tossed the vacuum to Grillby-

 

Sans finished clearing the table of snacks and then tried to nurse his poor deer ornament back to life.

 

“Of course, of course, Undyne. Let me just set these here! I am trying some new recipes -Lemon meringue and a caramel cheesecake.”

 

Undyne and Toriel walked outside for a moment to Undyne’s car- Tori waved T.J. away, so he talked to Grillby and Sans.

 

“So what do you want to talk about, child?”

 

“Madam-why do you have a human guard? I mean-when we came to the surface, any monster would have guarded you. Asgore! We had to pry Papyrus away from the idea for a month. And now you have this human-who-frankly, probably could not stop so much as an attack from a high level Whimsum?”

 

Toriel nodded and sighed, rubbing her arm.

 

“Oh Undyne, I did not ask any monster to guard me because I wanted you all to try and expand your horizons on the surface. The truth is, even Underground Asgore and I needed very little protection, aside from the occasional attempt…and crime was –not nonexistent, but pretty low. As Captain of the guard I am sure that you realized we did not need a large force- and that some of the positions were simply to provide monsters with employment?”

 

Undyne nodded, the Guard were important- in the city, more than in Snowdin or Waterfall, but aside from the occasional monster trying to take a swing at Asgore, the amount of crime could be handled well with a small force. Still-

 

“But, you have a guard now, so-you are saying we aren’t well trained enough? I know humans aren’t really a threat now, but we are still prepared for combat at any time! Even the lowest sentry at Snowdin was trained! And I bet even my newest guard could beat that _human_ in a fight!”

 

Toriel stood up her face becoming stern,

 

 

“No-Undyne, I was unclear. I believe in every one of the Royal Guards, and every sentry. But I mean that there are more opportunities up here! I did not want a human guard either but-”

 

“Oh, Ok, then, just tell him to leave!”

 

“But-the human government provided me with one after an assassination attempt.”

 

“a WHAT?”

 

Toriel showed Undyne her bandaged arm.

 

“Do not worry the others, please. It was a small wound, took off 10 HP…and I had a Doctor remove the bullet. I am a tough old goat, and even if they had hit my heart I would have survived…”

 

“Oh, Toriel, This is awful! Who did this to you? Why isn’t this in the news? We need to organize a search-”

 

 

Toriel shook her head.

 

“Undyne, we do not know, the subject is still at large. The human authorities worry it is an extremist of some kind who dislikes monsters and if it makes you feel better Dogamy, Dogaressa, and a team are on the case, as well as the human FBI. But it was as Frisk and I were walking in a crowded street… so we have no idea. Anyway, Asgore and I have survived plenty of human assassination attempts, and plenty of assassination attempts from other monsters… but I decided to keep the security guard for another reason- for Frisk. Frisk is tough, they are good at fighting monsters, as you know, but I promise you, they cannot take a bullet from a human gun.”

 

Undyne’s eye went wide. So the bodyguard was really for Frisk… Still she dug her heels into the ground.

 

“But Toriel, like I said, any monster would gladly do it!”

 

Toriel looked at Undyne,

 

“I know some who would. You and Papyrus love Frisk with all your souls, and I know you would be excellent guards! Maybe a few other talented monsters would be able to bond with Frisk nicely. Frisk is quite charismatic, after all.”

 

Toriel smiled proudly, she was happy to have such a kind child.

 

“But not every monster has warmed up to humans yet, aside from you two, there are actually only a few monsters I was considering. But, you and Papyrus are moving on with life-a good bodyguard should devote a lot of time to the client. So, while J.T. is probably only as strong as a non-magical Royal Guard member, he has been on the surface and has clearly chosen this path despite other opportunities.”

 

“But some monsters want to be guards!”

 

Toriel nodded,

 

“You are right, I could find an appropriate monster, but there is a second reason I like him… I think it is good for Frisk to have at least one human in their life.”

 

Undyne moved her head to the side,

 

“What? I-huh, maybe-I uh, never thought of that?”

 

Frisk loved monsters, and sure if she and Paps were busy it would be a pain to find one Tori could really trust but, still.

 

“Did you notice how Frisk ate the spinach puff after J.T. ate it? Frisk loves all of us a lot, but it is nice to have a good example. The school Frisk goes to is almost entirely filled with monsterlings- we have very few humans in our classes now, as you know from teaching gym. They are the only human in their grade. I suspect that will change in a few years, but between that and all the travelling, Frisk knows very few humans at all. I would prefer them bonding with a child their own age- but at the least, I think knowing one human who is not a politician should do them some good.”

 

 

Undyne’s eye lit up and she started to understand. She glanced through the window. Frisk had snuck down from story time, and was running around doing some ballet with Papyrus, J.T. was watching carefully and was pressured by Frisk to do a pirouette- which did not seem to be his strength, but he did a little twirl. Undyne smiled for a second,

 

“Hmm. Well he seems alright. You might be right that Frisk needs a human friend, or at least role model. But geez Tori, with assassins coming for you, I would feel better if you got a second guard, one who can at least protect Frisk from basic monster attacks…”

 

The Queen looked at Undyne.

 

“Well, realistically, despite my wishes, I probably have to hire a second guard soon…I promise to seriously consider any recommendations you send me.”

 

Undyne smiled, her fangs glistening,

 

“Hmm, well J.T. seems like a tough guy that can handle the muscle work, how about I pair him up with another nice monster?” Undyne smiled.

 

“I think you would be good at that Undyne.”

 

Tori smiled as well, Undyne had always had a knack for finding guards who worked well together.

 

***

 

Undyne and Toriel came in and finished heating up the roasted fish, some green beans, and home baked bread. Every monster had filled up on appetizers, but still had room for roasted (fresh caught) sea bass with lemon, and Toriel’s garlic bread.

Undyne devoured a very buttery piece of garlic bread, “So, J.T.? OR do you prefer Jay?”

 

“Oh, I like both.”

 

“So Jay, I don’t want to be blunt, but Tori and I were wondering if you would mind working with another guard to handle the magical stuff?”

 

Sans looked at Undyne, Damn-right to the point huh, Undyne?

 

Papyrus sat up straight in his chair.

 

“Well, I will admit, I am not sure how well I could defend against, flying bone attacks for example…”

 

J.T. smiled nervously at Papyrus.

 

Papyrus knew HE would defend against flying bone attacks, oh monster, would Grillby be OK with this?

 

“Well, Jay, I was wondering if you would mind dropping by sometime, I can put you through the paces and see what type of partner would work well with you? Uh, it would also be good if you filled out one of Alphys compatibility tests, to see if your personality will work with any guards we know.”

 

Papyrus leaned back into his chair, it was probably for the best. Undyne always paired monsters up and had a knack for pairing monsters who would fall in love. She usually did not do it intentionally, but if Alphys was gonna help Papyrus wanted no part. Sans tried not to giggle.

 

“I am always up for some training!” J.T. looked genuinely excited at the prospect.

 

The rest of the dinner went well, Alphys finally revealed the big secret.

 

“So-So Mettaton is finally back from his trans continental spectacular surface promotional tour! And he wanted us to s-sp-spend a few days at a cabin in a ski lodge he rented to try out for a weekend of snow filled fun! He w-w-wants us to go skiing.”

 

SQUEEEEE!

 

_“AHHH THE METTATON? THE ONE AND ONLY METTATON? WOW!”_

“AHHH!!!!ALPHYS TRULY THIS IS SO GENEROUS! BUT WHY IS METTATON INVITING US,I MEAN OBVIOUSLY HE IS FRIENDS WITH YOU AND UNDYNE, BUT I ONLY MET HIM ONCE?”

 

Both Papyrus and Nile had stood up from the table with figurative stars in their eyes.

 

“H-heh, well uhm. Mettaton…has not made a ton of friends since coming to the surface..th-they were pretty shy before they b-be-became a star, b-b-believe it or not.”

 

Nobody could believe it, but they supposed it was true.

 

“A-And he remembers you from the day we escaped the surface, and wants to m-m-meet Frisk again and the m-m-monsterlings and their soul parents. So he invited all of us, and a-also Bunny and C-Caspian. Oh-and his three cousins will be there, but I only k-know Napstablook.”

 

“oh sweet, i love napstablook!”

 

“…Who are his other cousins?...” Grillby assumed some other ghosts. He bet they would be nice.

 

Toriel smiled for a second, but then frowned,

 

“How generous of Mettaton, I am afraid I cannot attend this one, there is another meeting that weekend… but if Frisk can go with J.T. in my place, that would be O.K. But if Mettaton is not alright with it, then we will have to decline.”

 

Frisk went from looking really excited to worried.

 

Undyne chimed in,

 

“I am sure M.T. will say yes, we’ll call him tonight and get back to you!”

 

*************************************

The group enjoyed some coffee and dessert, excitedly talking about learning how to ski and making new friends-and then waddled to the couch for early Gyftmas presents. Every monster really liked each other, but most would be with their own families for the holiday itself. Thus, the group simply had decided on a ‘White Oliphant’ gift exchange, with everyone bringing a present for everyone else, and the chance of stealing presents!

 

The kids were super into it. Alphys had drawn first and picked the present from Grillby- a conspicuously wrapped bottle of wine. Alphys enjoyed a good bottle and wanted to make sure the kids did not pick it,

 

“G-gee I wonder what is in he-he-here. Ooh special adult grape juice…Heh heh, thanks Grillby.”

 

Grillby felt a bit embarrassed, but Alphys liked the present.

 

Thankfully most of the rest of the presents were actually a mystery, as most monsters had wrapped things with good disguises. Sans saw a present wrapped in fish themed wrapping paper, with the words ‘cool’ and ‘glitter’ written on the side in sharpie. Sans felt like Nancy Drew, and happily opened the box from his brother, Papyrus always had thoughtful gifts!

 

Papyrus face palmed as he picked the box up.

 

As Sans touched it, he realized it was soft and squeaked as he squished it, huh? He squeezed it again, and it talked

 

‘blub blub blub, let’s go swim!’

 

He tore the paper off,

 

Oh, Papyrus had thought of the monsterlings. Still, Sans bet one of them would steal it!

 

“oh wow a purple stuffed fish plushy, i sure hope no monster steals this one from me. it even talks!”

 

Sans squeezed it again, and it talked, this time moving a fin and shaking its tailfin.

 

“let’s dive right in, blub blub blub!”

 

Undyne laughed her head off.

 

“Woah! Surface toys are neat! I always wanted a toy that could shake its butt!”

 

Sans pushed it towards Nariko who was next.

 

Nariko immediately chose to steal the fish plushy, wrestling with it to hear all of its pre-set catchphrases.

 

“Blub, Blub! Let’s dance in the water!”

 

“Bloop Bloop splish splash!”

 

While the cacophony continued, Sans picked a new present, this one wrapped with an ocean theme-probably from Undyne.

 

This one was also squishy. It was from Nile,

 

_“HEH, PY AND I MUST HAVE GONE TO THE SAME STORE…OOPS.”_

Toriel’s eye’s went wide… as Sans squeezed it again, and he heard, “Blub Blub, Let’s dance in the water.”

Sans found a second fish plushy, but red. It squeaked and mentioned how it wanted to ‘splish splash around’.

 

“oh wow, how crazy, another one, well hopefully no monsterling wants this cool present, too?”

 

Rinan was next and immediately took the fish plushy from Sans, who smiled and picked a third present. Rinan hugged it and petted it.

 

Sans picked a plain present wrapped in purple paper,

 

“Heh, that one’s from me,” J.T. smiled.

 

Thank Asgore.

 

Sans was pleasantly surprised to get a coffee cup shaped like an orange and white robot.

 

“It is from the movie Star Wars! It is a big thing up here, I think you would like it.”

 

“ooh, so is it in space?”

 

“YES! It is great! It is like an entire space opera-there are heroes fighting with space laser swords! And cool aliens, and space ship battles. In terms of the plot-there is a main trilogy, and then, well you should maybe skip them, except the last one- but there are a trio of prequels, and now they are making a third set that comes after, as well as a second set of prequels! This robot is from the new one!”

 

J.T. had also captured Undyne and Alphys attention.

 

Hey if it was about stars, Sans would watch it.

 

Grillby’s turn, now wondering if he would enjoy the apparently ten part space opera that Sans wanted to watch, he went for the other purple wrapped present, but with a frilly lace bow. This one was clearly from Toriel and if Grillby was lucky it would be more of her cooking…

 

A pink fish plushy was unwrapped.

 

“Ok, I should tell you these were in the toy store at the mall, I think all three of us must have went there, it was the perfect toy to get.”

 

“well, it was a bit _fishy_ that every monster bought the same thing.” Sans smiled.

 

Grillby tried to copy Sans,

 

“…Oh if only a little monsterling wanted this cool stuffed fish monster that talks about wet things... I love it so much…”

 

Grillby squeezed it,

 

“let’s jump in the water.”

 

Grillby did not like this toy.

 

“…This fish is a bit reckless for me…”

 

Grillby wiggled it in front of Damini.

 

Damini nodded, it was her turn. Grillby wiggled the plushy in front of her.

 

Damini slithered forward on her tail, and ignored the pink plushie…Toriel looked a bit sad.

 

“IT IS OK, TORI, I THINK PINK IS A NICE COLOR!”

 

Damini went for the largest box wrapped in bone themed wrapping paper.

 

“This one is from Frisk!” Toriel smiled while Frisk wiggled happily.

 

“FRISK WHERE DID YOU FIND THAT LOVELY WRAPPING PAPER?”

 

Damini opened the box to find a bunch of socks with skeletons on them… She put one on her tail fin… and squeaked happily.

 

“FRISK YOUR PRESENT IS AMAZING! EVERY MONSTER WILL WANT TO STEAL IT!”

 

Grillby held the fish plush and decided to make the best of it.

 

Papyrus, despite his love of skeletal socks, opened a new one, getting a blender from Alphys,

 

“WOW! I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO MAKE SMOOTHIES!”

 

“I-mo-modified it so it can cut through some intense fruit…and so it d-doubles as a radio.”

 

The blender was turned on and it could pick up the National Public Radio, a country music station, and smooth jazz. Excellent.

 

Frisk got a baseball bat from Undyne.

 

Nile jokingly stole the blender from Papyrus, so Papyrus re-picked and got Nariko’s present,

 

“WOW I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED A FANCY BREAD PAN, THANKS NARIKO!”

 

Papyrus was unsure of where Undyne had found a fish shaped bread pan-but why not?

 

J.T. got a box of chocolates from Sans. It was not the most creative present, but it was delicious.

 

Undyne picked the present from Rinan, some bloodworms.

 

“I figure Tori is not gonna want this at these bad boys.”

 

Undyne gabbed a handful of wriggling bloodworms and munched on them.

 

And Toriel, Queen of all monsters picked the final present from Damini,

 

“Ooh! A new fancy bread pan, shaped like a braded heart! Oh how delightful! Well, I just have to make something.”

 

The group all seemed happy with their presents, and chatted happily while finishing their coffees and hot chocolates.

 

*******

As the night wrapped up and the monsterlings curled up with their new toys (or socks), every monster was excited for Gyftmas cheer.

 

Grillby and Sans smiled as the little monsterlings just fell asleep-each clinging to a parent with Nariko curled up like a puppy on Alphys, Damini on Undyne’s lap, and little Rinan trying to stand up/lean on Undyne, but eventually falling asleep on her knee. Grillby tucked the fish plush under Damini’s sleeping arm and with some help the monster mothers got their kids into the family car and after a few hugs drove away.

 

“Alright you chumps! Have a good Gyftmas!”

 

“YOU TOO!”

 

_“HAVE FUN WITH THE GRANDPARENTS!”_

“…Stay warm…”

“see ya later alligators!”

 

“We are FISH, Sans!”

 

“well, aren’t alligators like a fish lizard hybrid.”

 

“W-well Sans actually they are aquatic r-r-reptiles!”

 

“i am pretty sure that means fish lizard.”

 

“Bye my dears!”

 

Frisk, Toriel and J.T. finished their hot cocoa, eggnog, an coffee respectively, and then J.T. opened his black van and drove them off.

 

“Merry Gyftmas!”


	53. Getting ready for Gyftmas visits

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick Disclaimer:
> 
> The way Nile is reacting- choosing to visit her family- is not necessarily the best thing to do, and I am not trying to say it is the best choice/ that they are handling the situation in the best way.
> 
> That being said, it is a bit personal for me-and this is grounded in reality of having to sometimes visit people you really should not. Her reaction about how she feels about her father is also something I have felt-so it may be hard to understand but it is a real feeling.
> 
> I also think it is important for Papyrus' and Nile's character development to talk about these issues-I realized I was maybe glossing over how Nile and Papyrus were feeling.
> 
> Papyrus and Nile might make a mistake or two but they will grow from it and learn.
> 
> The next chapter will have her visit with her father and mother but will also have some fun for them, too!

The bar was warm and cozy, Grillby had let Papyrus put up two strands of lights, and a few small decorations. The fire monster had wanted candles, but he was already pushing the fire code with the light over the door and booths.

 

He smiled, it was his last day in before he had visited the family and had just given everyone their Gyftmas bonus. Everyone at the employee meeting was jumping for joy or doing loops, with Stan the Tsundere plane doing actual loops. Cindy and Red actually hugged Grillby, so between that and everyone complimenting his holiday fruit and nut cake, Grillby was smiling.

 

The rest of the day went pretty well, Grillby was of course running around the place making sure everything possible ingredient was stocked to the fullest, preparing to leave for a week.

 

“Grillby, my friend, if we buy anymore coconut milk we are gonna have to store it back in Snowdin! Your fridge is already full.” Red tried to carefully back up into the cold room without knocking over any of the milk with his tailfeathers.

 

“…Sorry…the trend has been that everyone wants it instead of regular milk…trust me…you will need it…”

 

All the college humans and their coconut milk obsession, Grillby was wondering if it fueled their magic. And now the rabbits were drinking it. And Papyrus. Really Papyrus probably spent a third of his paycheck on milk...

 

Red and Violet were going to watch Catsup while the skeletons went to Hotland/ the Capitol for a few weeks. They were staying in Grillby’s apartment over the bar, which was convenient as Violet had just kicked out of her apartment and needed a place while Red and her looked for a small home in a monster friendly neighborhood that would fit a little kid.

 

“…I just can’t believe they would kick you out before Gyftmas…you two can stay as long as it takes…”

 

Violet smiled. She was looking a little bit tired and stressed, which was because she was suffering from a bit of morning sickness. And she was tired and stressed.

 

On top of it, Red had accidently given her a bit of a haircut when he had tried preening her hair with his beak. His beak was pretty dull, but well, luckily Violet had decided on a shorter hairstyle afterwards.

 

“Once they found out I was expecting a monster child, they found fault with me hanging up a few pictures-and said I broke the lease agreement with a few nails in the wall. Rather obvious hatred, but I guess not everyone is accepting.”

 

Red chirped in,

 

“We are so thankful for you Grillby! Once we get the place you should come by!”

 

“Yes! We cannot thank you enough. My parents offered us to stay with them, but-well they can be a bit overbearing. Onece we have a new place, you should come by Grillby, I will make my famous pistachio biscotti!”

 

Three hours later, Grillby recounted the napkin sets for the fifth time, and then went upstairs to pack for the trip. He was going to pick Sans up from work, and then shortcut to Hotland…

 

He texted Sans,

 

**Ready for the trip?**

 

And got a reply

 

**i am burning with excitement!**

 

*******************

 

Nile and Papyrus were both home from work and laying on the couch-with just the Gyftmas lights on- meaning it was still very very bright.

 

It was nice to just sit on the couch together, watching MTT, singing along to tunes, but Nile suddenly felt like nothing was going right.

 

 

Ugh, too much singing? But she loved singing. She hugged Papyrus, they started to kiss but, uh, no she was not feeling it beyond a few kisses.

 

Now, Nile was trying to braid her couple locks of hair, but the rubber bands kept snapping.

 

So she switched to carving figures, but she poked herself with the carving knife, so she tried playing her ney flute with Papyrus-

 

 _“KREEEEEEEE_ ” Nile blew too hard.

 

-and she finally knew something was wrong when Papyrus was playing better than she was.

 

“DO YOU WANT SOMETHING TO EAT?”

 

Papyrus made Nile some toast with the butter and jam spread in a soul shape. Nile touched the toast and it instantly dissolved into dust.

  

Yup…that was pretty bad. Nile sighed and picked up a puzzle book. After she stared at the same page for about twenty minutes Papyrus tried again,

 

“NILE, MAYBE SOMETHING IS ON YOUR MIND?”

 

_“NO, I AM SURE I JUST NEED TO EAT SOMETHING BUT MY MAGIC IS ACTING UP.”_

It was true that Nile’s magic was acting up, Papyrus swore the couch was starting to turn dusty.

 

“HMM…”

 

Papyrus stared at Nile, smiled meekly (as meekly as Papyrus could smile, and offered her a glass of water.

 

Nile drank the water-which she could swear was somehow dusty.

 

“SO…”

 

_“PY, I NEED TO GET SOMETHING OFF MY RIBCAGE.”_

Papyrus straightened up, and gently took Nile’s hand to look her in the eye sockets.

 

“WHATEVER YOU NEED NI!”

 

_“OH PY, YOU KNOW I REALLY DO NOT WANT TO SEE MY MOTHER TOMORROW.”_

Papyrus nodded. Ah, well that was it. It was obvious. He should have realized,

“OH IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO SEE YOUR MOTHER THAT IS-”

 

_“WELL IT IS NOT JUST THAT PY!”_

“OH.”

 

Papyrus continued to look at Nile.

 

_“I AM VERY MAD AT KUK, AND WORRIED I AM MAD AT MY FATHER. AND I KNOW I SHOULD NOT BE.”_

 

Papyrus’ eyes went wide,

 

“OH NO, UM, OH OK, THAT IS FINE. DO YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT?”

 

It was unexpected, but if Nile was mad, that was fine.

 

_“YOU ARE OK WITH THAT? I THOUGHT YOU REALLY WANTED TO SEE THEM?”_

 

Papyrus nodded,

 

“I, I DO LIKE YOUR FATHER, AND I TRULY BELIEVE THAT IF YOUR BROTHER TRIES HARDER HE CAN TURN OVER A NEW LEAF! BUT, WELL IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO SEE THEM, WE WILL NOT.”

 

Nile looked at Papyrus,

 

_“I-JUST. I AM SO MAD AT MY BROTHER…AND…IT IS UNFAIR…BUT…I AM.”_

Nile whispered the next bit, like she was not sure she wanted to say it.

 

_“Mad at my father. For letting it happen. For bailing Kuk out.”_

Nile’s eye sockets filled with tears,

_“ I JUST WISH…HE HAD GOTTEN BETTER SOONER…HE HAD BEEN ABLE TO PROTECT ME, HE HAD PREVENTED MY MOTHER FROM TRYING TO SUPRESS MY MAGIC. I KNOW HE WAS SICK, SO IT IS UNFAIR TO THINK THAT, THOUGH.”_

Nile clenched a pillow, and its corners faded.

 

_“HE HAS A GOOD SOUL, OF COURSE HE IS NOT GOING TO LET KUK BE IN PRISON… I DO NOT EVEN WANT KUK TO BE IN PRISON, BUT I AM JUST HAVING TROUBLE COMING TO TERMS WITH IT. LIKE WHAT PUSHED HIM TO LEAVE? WAS IT TO CHECK ON ME OR KUK? I MEAN, AS OUR FATHER I AM SURE HE LOVES US BOTH EQUALLY, BUT…I JUST FEEL LIKE.”_

Nile hit her head against the couch cushion.

 

“ _IT IS ILLOGICAL, HE SPECIFICALLY CAME TO CHECK ON ME. HE APOLAGIZED TO ME_ … _TO SEE HIM ON THE SURFACE WAS WONDEFUL, AND I WAS TRULY HAPPY TO SPEND TIME WITH HIM AFTER ALL THOSE YEARS. I HAVE BEEN SO WORRIED ABOUT HIM.”_

Nile unclenched the pillow and leaned onto Papyrus.

_BUT AFTER ALL THESE YEARS…MY MOTHER… HER CONTROL OVER ME…I-I DO NOT THINK I EXPLAINED IT, BUT APPLE AND ZO TRIED FOR MONTHS TO SNEAK ME ANYWHERE OUT OF LITTLE NECRPOLIS…IT WAS SO …DARK…OPRESSIVE…”_

Nile pushed away from Papyrus, and looked at him.

“NILE, YOU ARE RIGHT TO BE UPSET. I AM SO SORRY I DID NOT…I DID NOT THINK WITH THE LUNCH INVITE. I THOUGHT YOU WANTED TO PUSH PAST IT, BUT I WAS WRONG. AND WHEN YOU ASKED I GOT SO EXCITED.”

Nile’s tears slid down her cheekbones, while Papyrus held her hand and brought her a tissue.

 

_“I-I THOUGHT I COULD JUST PUSH PAST IT, TOO. IT IS SO WONDERFUL UP HERE, AND I THINK I LET MYSELF GET DISTRACTED BY JUST HOW GREAT IT FELT TO BE IN THE SUN. AND EVEN THOUGH THEY WERE AWFUL, I FELT LIKE, LIKE EVERYTHING WAS OK BECAUSE THERE WAS THIS SEPARATION…”_

 

Nile wiped away her tears,

_“WHEN I ASKED YOU ABOUT LUNCH, A WEIRD PART OF ME WAS EXCITED TO SEE THEM, TO SHOW THEM-LOOK HOW HAPPY YOU COULD BE-LOOK HOW HAPPY I AM! …AND NOW THAT HE IS DOING A LITTLE BETTER I THOUGHT FATHER WOULD, TAKE A STAND. MY FATHER…I JUST…HE IS THE SORT OF MONSTER WHO WANTS TO SEE GOOD IN OTHERS-SO MUCH SO THAT HE IS WITH MY MOTHER….SO HE PROBABLY WILL NEVER TAKE A STAND AGAINST HER, OUT OF A KINDNESS, TRYING TO HELP-”_

Nile stopped,

_“IT IS SOMETHING I LOVE ABOUT HIM-THAT I ALSO LOVE ABOUT YOU, YOUR KINDNESS. SEEING GOOD IN EVERYONE. YOU ARE SO NICE TO OTHER MONSTERS, EVEN THOSE WHO ARE AWFUL TO YOU.”_

Papyrus realized that the conversation had shifted to him.

 

_“JUST, WHY DO YOU WANT TO BEFRIEND MY FAMILY? I DO NOT NEED YOU TO.”_

 

Papyrus shifted uncomfortably, this was difficult, but he wanted to answer Nile.

 

“UM, I HAVE BEEN TOLD BY UNDYNE, AND SANS…AND EVERYONE THAT I MAYBE PUT TOO MUCH FAITH IN OTHER MONSTERS…BUT…WELL SANS SEES THE BAD IN EVERY SOUL…I DO NOT HAVE A POWER OR ANYTHING, BUT I SUPPOSE I AM THE OPPOSITE, I TRY TO SEE GOOD IN EVERY SOUL…”

 

Now Papyrus shifted to the other end of the couch,

 

“UM, BUT THAT IS NOT A REAL REASON TO BEFRIEND MONSTERS WHO HAVE BEEN AWFUL TO ME.”

 

Papyrus sighed; this was the sort of introspection he had been avoiding for a while…

 

“NYEH, I SUPPOSE I STRUGGLED WITH MAKING FRIENDS GROWING UP, I WAS ANNOYING AS A KID, SO LOTS OF MONSTERS WERE ANNOYED AT ME. SO I IMPORVED BY RIGHTING THE WRONGS AND TRYING TO BE A BETTER MONSTER, I WANT EVERYONE TO LOVE ME-BECAUSE AT ONE POINT I FELT LIKE NO MONSTER LOVED ME…AND SO, MAYBE THAT IS WHY I WANT TO BE FRIENDS WITH EVERYONE, NYEH. SO- IF ANOTHER MONSTER IS TRYING TO MAKE AMENDS TO ME- I FEEL LIKE I HAVE TO GIVE THEM THE SECOND CHANCE-SINCE A LOT OF MONSTERS GAVE ME ONE.”

 

Nile hugged Papyrus, and he hugged her back.

 

_“I THINK, PART OF FORGIVING MONSTERS…IS THAT IT TAKES SOME TIME…YOU NEED TO GIVE THEM TIME TO CHANGE…I THINK A FEW MONTHS IS NOT ENOUGH IN THIS CASE…”_

Nile stroked Papyrus’ face, where the last couple of remnants of the black mask were covered by some makeup. Papyrus looked down.

 

_“PY, I THINK GIVING MONSTERS A SECOND CHANCE IS USALLY THE RIGHT THING TO DO…BUT I THINK … YOU NEED…AND I NEED TO REALIZE I NEED SOME TIME TO HEAL FROM MOM…AND KUK…”_

Papyrus closed his eyes for a second before nodding.

 

“YOU ARE RIGHT, MAYBE I NEED SOME TIME, TOO.”

 

The two squeezed hands and Nile leaned back onto Papyrus.

 

_“NOW THAT I HAVE SAID THAT, I FEEL A LITTLE BETTER…AND I GUESS…I REALLY WANT TO SEE MY FATHER AFTER ALL, I AM WORRIED ABOUT HIM, AND I LOVE HIM A LOT.”_

Papyrus looked at Nile,

 

“WELL, NILE, WE CAN DO WHATEVER YOU WANT.”

 

Nile thought about it fully. What did she want?

 

*******

 

Nile and Papyrus hugged on the couch, watched the Nightmare before Christmas, and then hugged some more.

 

In the intermittent time Sans had hurriedly popped in, filled a suitcase overflowing with socks and grabbed a grumpy Catsup, Catsup feeding bowl, water bowl, litterbox, assortment of brushes and toy mice, blanket, and veterinary information.

 

Nile smiled as Sans poofed away with the yowling feline after she gave the kitty one last scratch.

 

Sans then popped back, to take several containers of water bottles out of the fridge and cabinet.

 

"see you guys tomorrow, do you think you can remember the address-just text me if you are lost, also do not forget to tell the mailperson to hold our letters for us, oh and there is some leftover pizza in the fridge you can have for dinner, and remember to unplug the gyftmas lights before you leave, or we are going to have a killer electric bill! and also-"

 

"SANS! GO ENJOY YOURSELF, DO NOT WORRY, I CAN HANDLE EATING THREE SLICES OF PIZZA AND DOING THE DISHES, JUST GO HAVE SOME FUN!"

 

Sans sighed.

 

"heh, sorry, just be safe you two!"

 

"SEE YOU BROTHER!

 

_“SEE YOU SANS!"_

 

Nile smiled at Papyrus as Sans left, she had come to a decision.

_"I THINK- ALTHOUGH I KNOW I DO NOT REALLY WANT TO SEE MOTHER, I NEED TO CHECK ON MY DAD. BUT I JUST WANT YOU TO UNDERSTAND; I AM NOT GOING TO PUSH TO MAKE UP WITH MOM AND KUK AT THE LUNCH. I GUESS, AS LONG AS WE ARE ON THE SAME PAGE- I DO NOT NEED YOU TO BE BEST FRIEND WITH MY FAMILY, I DO NOT EVEN NEED YOU TO BEND OVER BACKWARDS IF THEY ARE RUDE TO YOU-LET US JUST SUPPORT EACH OTHER. AFTER THIS VISIT, LET US JUST STICK TO SEEING DAD FOR A WHILE.”_

Papyrus held Nile, and the two steeled themselves.

 

_“FOR DAD!”_

“FOR NILE!"

 

Nile gave Papyrus a kiss on the cheek, and while she was still not feeling great about seeing her father, she was feeling better about it.

 *******************************************

 

Grillby and Sans finally short cutted to Hotland. Sans was a bit nervous short cutting around Underground, but Grillby was not eager to bring his car anywhere near a magma pool. They decided that instead of going straight to the house they would go to the lab entrance and walk the last bit to prevent straining the teleport though…

 

“…have you ever been to a house in Hotland before?…”

 

“well, i knew a few Lizard monsters who had an apartment, why is your house on fire?”

 

Grillby smiled,

 

“…The kitchen is rather hot…and well, we have a magma swimming pool… but while it is…a bit toastier than your house… it is a normal. Not made of wood though, stone… and brick…do not worry I would not toast you Sans…”

 

Grillby hugged Sans.

 

“i am happy to see your folks again grillby, they really _warmed_ up to me last time.”

 

“…I am hoping my father is better…He keeps insisting over the phone I do not need to come by during the work week…do you think he will like the present we got him?...”

 

“i think your father will love it. i am more worried about the gift we got your brother.”

 

The group took a left away from the Lab, and went down a road with several switches, conveyers and fan jumps. Grillby sighed and held Sans hand as he jumped forward then back, then left. He then ran quickly on the conveyor belt for two steps and then switched the fans on.

 

“…Now this is not how you are suppose to solve it…but it saves ten minutes…”

 

Grillby Grabbed Sans Hand, and then jumped to the side off the platform. Sans was terrified they would fall into the lava, until he found himself on a fan being lifted across the whole puzzle.

 

“…My father helped design this puzzle…it is fun…the first fifty times you do it, but it definitely slows travel down…he always has a safety feature installed in case a young monsterling misses a jump…we will land safely at the end of the street…”

 

Grillby’s flames were pushed forward by the wind, and Sans was amazed that the fan was strong enough to carry both of them forward. They spun around a few times after landing to find a cul-de-sac of stone houses, all lit up and decorated for Gyftmas. The decorations were mostly lights based, with a few Gyftrot decorations and Santas that looked like Asgore. The street sloped upwards, and curved up the cave.

 

Grillby pointed out a few of the houses,

 

“…Cousin FUKU…used to live in that house, we would play together as kids… I am excited to meet her husband properly and their little flameling...her parents passed away but I heard another family moved in after FUKU sold the house to live on the surface.”

 

Two little red firelings were playing outside, shaping some clumps of molten looking rocks into a snowmonster shape complete with rocks for eyes and two steel bars for arms.

 

Grillby pointed to a house up the bend, it seemed to be a little bigger than the other houses, and even had a front patio,

 

“…This is where my Cousin Sparkus lives. Cousin Sparkus is rather older than me, he and Magmus get along more…”

 

The house had a very nice rock garden, and a little lava fountain. There seemed to be some fencing behind it, but a stone wall blocked part of the view.

 

The two passed the bend and Grillby pointed out a third house,

 

“…The little house, with the broken chimney...My father…only had one cousin, Deepti, make it through the war…and she passed away hundreds of years ago…but her granddaughters, my uh…first cousins twice removed or something…live here…Furnicia, she is a bit of a jerk…but her sister Emberry…and her wife Vulcy are sweet…”

 

“you have such a big family! uh, do you mind giving me the rundown again?”

 

“…Well…I suppose it is rather confusing…and my parents house is the one at the VERY top of the hill…”

 

The cul-de-sac was long and winding, with a tiny dot of a house at the top of the hill. Sans paid attention to Grillby,

 

“…My mother is one of four, her parents, Grandpa Furnio and Grandma Charcetta had her, Aunt Fifi, Uncle Flamiel, and Uncle Fireleo. Grandpa and Grandma passed away before I met them.”

 

Grillby tripped on a little red tricycle that was on the sidewalk. Grillby was happy to see it was a new one from the surface…

 

“Aunt Fifi married a rock monster, Uncle Coal, and they had Cousin FUKU, who married Toddflame, a yellow elemental, and they have a baby Emmaflame. Uncle Coal and Aunt Fifi passed away a few years ago and the family is still grieving.”

 

Sans patted Grillby’s hand,

 

“Uncle Flamiel married Aunt JANAFIRE, and they have cousin Sparkus. Sparkus married a flaming rabbit monster named Firebun, and they…are sad they probably cannot have monsterlings, but they are very nice! They have a Nightmare in a little stable in the back of their big house…”

 

Maybe Grillby was ready to try riding one again…

 

“Last, Uncle Fireleo married a smokemonster, Dusty, and adopted a monsterling, Charrles, a vulcin. They are alright, but Dusty is a bit of a snob-he has a very high paying job at the capitol and likes to remind everyone about it. Fireio met him at work and they live at the capitol.”

 

 

Grillby tried to get along with them, I mean, they were alright, but…

 

 

“And like I said my dad just has Furnicia and Emberry. Emberry and Vulcy sometimes come over to have fire-tea with him. Their parents, Lav and Furni passed away years ago, and I was just a baby...”

  

“aww grillbz, your family sounds amazing! it is cool how they all live in the same neighborhood-cept for you, FUKU, and uh, your Uncle Fireio.”

 

“…I never thought about it growing up…but it was nice… I got to stay with family a lot…and we would usually meet up with them for dinner on the weekends…”

 

They pair came to Grillby’s parent’s house, and before Grillby could even knock the door was thrown open.

 

“Ooh hoOO hOOO…. Little GrillbERT!….”

 

 

Afi, whose magma was red, but at least shifting glomped Grillby into a huge fiery hug. Sans could not help but notice he seemed to be stumbling a little bit and he moved to his son.

 

“…Hello! Sans and Grillbert…I am so happy to see you!...” Afi's molten mass shifted a bit more quickly from seeing his son.

 

Fiametta gave Sans a quick, polite hug.

 

Magmus was also in, and gave Grillby and Sans a hi-five, before Sans also got a monster-hug from Afi.

 

“nice to see you all too! merry gyftmas!”

 

“…It is nice to be home…Do you need help cooking or anything?...”

 

Fiametta practically pushed Grillby into the metal dining room chair.

 

“…Grillbert!... you cook all the time…relax, relax…”

 

Afi had Sans sit down, and Magmus tossed them each a beer,

 

“…It is craftbEER…from the surface…lots of little hOPs” Magmus burbled.

 

 

“…anD dear FiAMETTA and I have learned to mAKE…some non-fIRE fOOD! pERFECT fOR GyftmAS!...”

 

 

Afi carefuly walked to the oven, and stuck his hands inside to pull out what looked like a whole roast turkey! Sans could not help but to start to magically drool as the smell of lemon, garlic, butter and homemade stuffing floated by. Fiametta then pulled out a few more dishes.

 

“…yES..let me just get the cOAT right…”

 

Sans then watched in horror as Afi set it on fire and it blackened to charcoal color.

 

“…DAD!...that is too hard for Sans to eat.

 

Sans tried to smile politely...he was a skeleton...he could eat poison...he would be ok.

 

Afi was laughing though!

 

“…hOO HOO hOO! You should see the look on your fACes!”

 

Afi reached his hand into the oven and pulled out a second Turkey-this one a little smaller, but just as tasty looking.

 

“…I am sORRY bOYS! My DOCtor wants me to avoid almost any mOISTure…so fiA and I will share the…mORE coOKed one…”

 

Fiametta smiled at the pair while Afi ruffled Grillby’s fire hair. Grillby and Laughed along-it was a good prank.

 

“…I made roasted green beans and mashed potatoes…and of course good old cedar squares with honey for Afi dearest…”

 

“…Please stOP describing the tASTY fOod! …I AM starving!...” Magmus’ face looked like his lower jaw melted off in excitement.

 

 

“…Why don’t you put your things in Grillby’s old room…and then we can get right to dinner if you do not mind?...” Fiametta smiled.

 

“Ohh hOOO hooo…do hurry up!...she has not let us eAT… all day… to prevent spOILing our appETite…”

 

“…And now that we are about to eat…you should take your medicine dear…”

 

Afi grumbled as Fiametta took out three potions, a log with something slathered on it, and a bottle of tiny pills.

 

 **************

“…Alright Sans…this is my old room…”

 

Grillby led Sans down past the kitchen and dining room to a hallway. Grillby turned into a small room at the end.

 

The room was clean, it had a guest bed, a dresser, and what looked like an old guitar propped up against the wall.

 

The walls had a few old posters with Monster Bands on them… ‘The Deathbats!,’ ‘The Salt Ghouls,’ and a very, uh sexy picture of ‘The Legendary Lizards.’ The Lizard one had the shirtless main Monster very evocatively holding the microphone…and it was signed, and directly next to the bed.

 

Grillby decided that that one poster should maybe go into a drawer…

  

“so, uh, i did not think you liked the salt ghouls?”

 

“…HAha…well I like punk stuff more, but who did not like ‘If you wanna be my mummy?’”

 

“if you wanna be my mummy, you gotta get with my friends~haunting things is easy but the afterlife never ends~”

 

Sans did a little twirl.

 

"ooh, do you play guitar?"

 

"...Well...mostly I played...keep the wooden guitar away from hungry Magmus..."

 

Sans and Grillby laughed while Grilby walked to the guitar.

 

“…Sans…I have to admit I begged my parents for a guitar as a monsterling…and well…let us just say there is a reason I went into cooking instead…”

 

“aww come on babe, just do a quick tune for me?” Sans leaned into grillby and attempted to flutter his non-existent eyelashes. 

 

Grillby laughed,

 

“…Ok, let me just throw my stuff in the drawer first…”

 

Grillby moved his folded clothes from the suitcase into the drawer, and his the presents in the closet, before picking up the guitar. It was weird to see his room again so empty-but he had taken most of his belongings ages ago. he pushed away one old shirt he had left in the drawer and an old studded belt, and picked up the guitar. Heh he was bad at it, but he had loved this thing.

 

Sans unpacked his clothes and the week’s worth of water he had brought…

 

Grillby stroked the guitar strings…one caught fire for a second, but he wuickly put it out and did a simple strum,

 

“…Hmm …Hmm Hmm…Sansy…Sansy…It is not just words between me and you…" Grillby struck an off-chord, but kept going...

 

"...if you knew…what I am feeling inside me-ee…how I want us to be-ee….let’s make it re-eal…I’ll shoe you how I fe-eeel…Sansy…Sansy I want youuuu…oooh ooh oohhh…”

 

Sans pretended to swoon over and Grillby caught him in his arms.

 

“heh, pick up all the highschool boys with that one?”

 

“…Eh…not really…just skeletons…”

 

They heard a knock on the door,

 

“yOU twO unpacked yet? I mIGHT eAT your dOOR GrillbY!”

 

Grillby and Sans Laughed... and headed to dinner,

 

"...I mean...but he  _did_ eat the door once..."

 


	54. In which a lunch did not work out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> heh, sorry we are still on Gyftmas in the spring, but I had some ideas about how to progress with a few characters.

 

Sans and Grillby were sleeping in after the big turkey dinner. The whole group had stayed up pretty late-till 2AM playing a variety of board games. Afi remained the undefeated mancala champion, but Sans had given him a run for his money. Magmus and Grillby duked it out at poker, but both lost when Fiametta joined. The last game they played- a human one called ‘Settlers of Catan’ had been Grillby’s new favorite.

 

“…SON…are you sURE you want the wOOD resource and brick resources only?...”

 

“…I think it is better than the sheep…realistically wouldn’t building roads be the best way to go?…”

 

Grillby then ate his words –as during a bitter battle his father became the winner by creating an empire with sheep resources, securing the victory by overtaking Grillby in the longest road category.

“ooh that was pretty baaaad.”

 

Sans leaned into Grillby, who dejectedly handed over the point card to his father.

 

“…I suppose I should not have been so sheepish about other resurces…”

 

Grillby smiled.

 

 

Fiametta’s coal-like eyes softened as she leaned into Afi,

 

“…All right-I have not stayed up this late since I was a teenager…but I think it is time to call it quits…you are all on your own for breakfast tomorrow!...”

 

Fiametta shoved aside her unsuccessful wheat and stone cards.

 

Afi puffed up and lit from charcoal to bright red for a second.

 

“…yES…I cAN bEAT you all at bOARDgames more tomorrow…hoo hOO! …And I neED to rEST before the conCERT.”

 

Afi was wobbling a bit, but scooped up Fiametta and the two headed off to bed.

 

Grillby tried to scoop up Sans, but tripped a bit-Geez he was tired…

 

“…brOTher…yOU need to wORK Out!...”

 

Sans still thought it was romantic, despite Magmus’ laughter.

 

****

 

The next morning, Magmus’ snores could be heard from the room across the hall. The pair did not entirely fit nicely on the guest bed, but with a little creative merging the pair was able keep cuddled-half merged with each other.

 

There were actually two more guest rooms, but Nile and Papyrus would be sharing one tonight, while FUKU’s family would share the last one.

 

The rest of the fire family was going to stay at cousin Sparkus’ house but come over for Gyftmas dinner and presents.

 

Sans checked his cell phone…10:30 AM…pretty late, but the whole rest of the house was still asleep, so he kept in bed.

 

**************

 

 

_“OH MY ASGORE, PAPYRUS, HOW LATE DID WE SLEEP IN, IT IS ALREADY 10:30!”_

Nile quickly jumped off of Papyrus/ the couch and started the hot water for a shower. The two took the quickest shower imaginable and tried to pick out a nice outfit.

 

“UM, I GUESS I COULD TRY TO FIND A SHIRT THAT COVERS MY SPINE…”

 

_“DRESS HOWEVER YOU WANT! REMEMBER YOU DO NOT HAVE TO CHANGE YOURSELF ON ACCOUNT OF MY DUMB PARENTS.”_

“NYEH HEH HEH, DO NOT WORRY NILE, I KNOW. BUT THE WEATHER REPORT SAYS IT WILL BE QUITE COLD TODAY…SO I WILL ACTAULLY WEAR THIS SWEATER SANS GOT ME.”

 

Sans had gotten Papyrus a few sweaters…Papyrus had never loved sweaters Underground, but he now suspected he just did not like itchy wool ones. After Sans had found a fuzzy acrylic ombre blue and white sweater-one that actually fit Papyrus. It was sometimes hard to find something that fit well on top, and that did not cave horribly around his waist…but the stretch fabric seemed to work fine.

 

Nile decided to go with a matching pink fuzzy sweater-and the two were now so static-y that they zapped each other when they hugged.

 

“OK, SO WE HAVE A PRESENT THAT SAYS ‘WE THOUGHT OF YOU, BUT WE ARE STILL ANNOYED?”

 

_“THE LARGE FRUIT BASKET IS IN THE CAR.”_

Papyrus nodded, they had decided a fruit basket would be cool-but it had not taken a ton of effort as they ordered it online.

 

The two headed to the restaurant- a surprisingly fancy crepe place that specialized in brunch and sat down at the reserved table- a lovely window seat with fresh decorations of red and yellow gerbera. The waitress smiled,

 

“Would you care to order drinks, or wait for the rest of the party?”

 

_“IT WOULD BE BEST TO WAIT, BUT COULD WE HAVE THE MENU SO WE CAN START TO DECIDE?”_

The waitress smiled and instead poured them some sparkling water with lemon slices.

 

Nile and Papyrus awkwardly drank their water with lemon slices. Papyrus was surprised that it was sparkling water-which made the water seem fancier, but taste less good.

 

As Papyrus weighed the pros and cons of seltzer water he noticed Nile’s arms started to rattle.

 

Papyrus booped Nile’s nasal cavity,

 

“NILE, LET ME KNOW IF I CAN DO ANYTHING.”

 

_“WELL, I SUPPOSE WE COULD JUST PRETEND THIS IS A DATE.”_

“ANYTHING YOU WANT MY CUTE YUMMY MUMMY.”

 

Papyrus nuzzled into Nile, while she smiled and snorted a bit with laughter,

 

_“ **HAHA-SNORT** -OH MY ZHURG. PAPYRUS, I THINK I WOULD TURN TO ASH IF MY PARENTS HEARD THAT. BUT, WOW, YEAH THAT HELPED. ” _

 

Nile leaned onto Papyrus’ shoulder and the two decided they were just going to go ahead and get the ‘lovebird special’ which was a shared plate of two brie and strawberry stuffed sweet crepes with crème, two signature apple crepes with caramel drizzle and edible flowers, and two savory margarita crepes with mozzarella, plum tomatoes, pesto, and a sweet vinaigrette drizzle.

 

_“WOW, IF NOTHING ELSE THE FOOD WILL BE DELICIOUS!”_

***************************

A ray of sunshine shone in through the window-A ray of sunshine that was immediately cast in shadow as Nile’s family entered the establishment.

 

Sobek ducked to enter the low door, followed by a wide-eyed Ammit, a nervous looking Kuk, and a fourth very grumpy mummy whose hulking frame was hunched in a miserable huff of indignance. Papyrus presumed that was the dreaded Khepri- who was in fact much taller than Papyrus. The mummy looked like a young and angry Sobek.

 

The four were dressed a bit more… traditionally- with Ammit wearing a traditional funerary gown, white and flowing-that made it difficult for her to walk. Sobek, Kuk, and Khepri were wearing tunics, and all four looked cold, considering that the mountains of California in December were a bit chillier than Egypt.

 

**Whiirrr…Klink**

**Whiiiiiiiiirrrrr…Kliiink…**

“My dear Anuket! What a lovely restaurant! It is so wonderful to see you!” Sobek’s eye’s glowed happily yellow for a split second-before he caught it. Ammit did not notice.

 

Sobek all but ran up to Nile to give her a strong hug, and then a friendly hug to Papyrus. Ammit strode up slowly- her gown flowing. About half the humans in the restaurant were trying not to stare, and the other half were staring intently. There was no hug.

 

Ammit looked at Nile,

 

“Nile, What ridiculous outfit is that?”

 

_“IT IS SURFACE FASHION MOTHER!”_

“You look like a piece of lint!”

 

Nile looked down for a second before shaking her head. No she was going to stand up this time…

 

“ _WELL, IT IS WARM, COMFORTABLE, AND ALLOWS FOR MOVEMENT_.” Nile took a step backwards to demonstrate…it was a bit nicer than a funerary gown.

 

Ammit glared at Nile.

 

“It is rather improper for a young lady like yourself to go around in such an outrageous ensem-”

 

Sobek stepped in-

 

“Wow, what a stretch of the old bones! Best to sit down though, feeling a bit tired!”

 

**Whiirrr…Klink…Klink...KLONK**

 

Sobek was sliding a few coins in his hands, and while his arms were shaking, and his head was tilting, he was able to walk. Still it had been a long journey and the mummy was happy to rest his bones.

 

Sobek sat down, sitting across from Papyrus. Ammit filled in next to Sobek, and Kuk next to Nile.

 

Khepri sat right next to his mother. His eyes were glowing green, dully, not menacing-but not a friendly glow either.

 

Ammit smacked his arm,

 

“And I told you not to glow your darn eyes, Khepri!”

 

Khepri silently nodded and stopped dully glowing his eyes and turned them to a resting glare.

 

Sobek tried to distract again,

 

“Oh, yes, I know you have…met…Ammit and Kuk.”

 

**Whiirrr…Klink**

 

**Whiirrr…Klink**

 

Sobek dearly wished the circumstances for either of those meetings had been more pleasant,

 

“But you have not formally met Khepri before, Papyrus. Yes, this is my oldest Khepri! He took over the old construction business, Underground, who knows maybe he might move it up here now, too!”

 

“IT IS NICE TO MEET YOU KHEPRI.”

 

Khepri’s eyes narrowed, and he picked up the menu. Papyrus decided that was enough of a try. Nile looked peeved,

 

_“PAPYRUS SAID HELLO, DEAREST BROTHER.”_

Khepri put the menu down.

 

**“hello. it is a pleasure to meet you papyrus.”**

Papyrus was surprised- Khepri had the same sort of font voice as Sans! Papyrus smiled at Khepri.

 

“Khepri, remember to speak up.” Ammit glared at her son.

 

Khepri turned a pallid shade of green, and tried talking louder, but he struggled to capitalize things,

 

“ **I Hear From KUK tHat yoU Have a House.”**

 

_“OH KHEP, IT IS OK, THERE IS NO NEED-!”_

Khepri shook his head. Ammit glowered at Nile.

**“bUT, yOU know iF you want an addition-.”**

“As if he has the money for an addition.” Ammit scowled.

 

_“WELL, ACTUALLY WE ARE BOTH FINANCIALLY STABLE, CONSIDERING WE HAVE SURFACE JOBS…”_

Ammit looked furious. Kuk and Khepri hurriedly pulled the menus up to cover their faces. Sobek smiled, and Papyrus squeezed her hand gently.

 

Sobek leaned his head,

 

**…Whiir whiir…clink**

 

“Oh, now now, let’s not talk about finances! Nile and Papyrus, here let me give you your Gyftmas presents! The boys helped pick them out.”

 

**Whiirrr…Klink**

 

 

Kuk handed Nile a gift. To Papyrus’ horror it was a mask. Kuk did not look like there was ill intent, his eyes squinted and he tried to smile. Papyrus figured it was harmless, if tactless.

 

**“Sister-I know you love masks, and I noticed a few of your favorites were…damaged… so I got you this Ra mask! I figured since you are on the surface you would like the god of the sun!”**

 

Nile’s face twitched for a second. She was still a bit wary of the thing. But-she could tell Kuk was trying.

 

_“W-WOW I LOVE IT KUK! IT IS VERY SYMBOLIC, TOO!”_

Nile held the mask up and smiled-being careful not to place it on her head. Kuk looked happy.

 

To Papyrus’ shock and horror Khepri handed Papyrus a gift in a small blue bag with some tissue paper. Khepri was trying to smile, but really just looked very uncomfortable.

 

Papyrus pulled out a statue of what looked like a golden colored skull with red eyes.

 

“OH WOW, THANK YOU KHEPRI!

 

Khepri nodded,

 

**“i know yoU and Nile will want a proper zHurg statue fOR yOUr altar. i found one that is iN a skeletal style.”**

“OH WOW THANKS! WHAT IS THE MUMMY VERSION LIKE?”

 

Papyrus was probably not going to build an altar to worship Zhurg anytime soon, but Khepri did not need to know that.

 

Khepri’s eyes lit green for a second happily,

 

**“ah, yes, the mummy one has some bandages…but we know that lord zhrug was skeletal…with a beard and crown!”**

 

“HE HAD HAIR?” Papyrus was impressed by this.

 

Khepri smiled,

 

**“well, as much as a lich can have hair! nyahahaha!”**

 

Nile and Papyrus lifted their present forward from the booth-A huge basket with oranges, apricots, golden pears, plums, pomegranates-and a variety of chocolates and cheeses.

 

 

“WE GOT YOU THIS BASKET-IT HAS LOTS OF GREAT SURFACE FRUITS AND DELICACIES, SINCE YOU LIKED THEM SO MUCH LAST TIME.”

Khepri and Kuk looked excited, and even Ammit could not hide a smile for a split second.

 

Sobek beamed happily,

 

“How thoughtful! I am just getting into cooking with them you know- I even ordered a new pan, but it is still being shipped. Kuk showed me how to use the Underweb network-i-mail thing!”

 

**“Undernet e-mail dad! It should come tomorrow!”**

 

_“OH WOW FATHER YOU ARE COOKING!”_

**whiiir clink…whiiiiirrr…**

“Yes, we are not sure why, but my curse seems to be regressing slightly. Perhaps the sunlight from the surface helps somehow.”

 

Sobek tucked his finger into his tunic pocket, resting it on the sand dollar Nile had given him. The tall mummy straightened up and his eyes glowed for a split second.

 

Ammit stared suspiciously at his pocket, but said nothing.

 

Nile noticed and decided to divert,

 

_“ANYWAY, WHY DON’T WE CHOOSE SOMETHING TO EAT. THIS SURFACE FOOD IS QUITE LIGHT AND REFRESHING, MOTHER AND FATHER, YOU MIGHT ENJOY THE SWEET MENU, WITH ALL THE FRESH FRUIT AND CREMES, AND BROTHERS YOU MIGHT ENJOY THE SAVORY ONES.”_

**Whiiirrr…riing…**

“Oh Nile dearest, which are you getting?”

 

_“PY AND I ARE GETTING THE LOVEBIRD COMBO, IT HAS BOTH SWEET AND SAVORY OPTIONS!”_

Nile smiled. Ammit frowned.

 

“Oh, Ammit, my love, let’s get that one, too!”

 

Ammit tried to grin. The lemon slice in her water turned brown and partially dissolved into the beverage. The waitress noticed when she came back for their orders.

 

“Oh dear, I am so sorry ma’m about the drink, we will give you a free drink on the house.”

 

Ammit looked confused by the kindness,

 

“Huh, oh uh…yes, yes, what would you recommend?”

 

***

 

And thus Ammit was now provided with the “Sunrise Special” a mixture of orange juice, pineapple juice, coconut, and shaved ice. She tried to glare at the little umbrella, and cherry but could not manage to look miserable whilst drinking it.

 

Her eyes lit up for a second-a feint blue.

 

She gasped.

 

“Sobek, dearest, this drink, try some.”

 

Sobek tried the drink, his eyes did not glow but it seemed like he enjoyed it.

 

“It did not trigger your magic Sobek!”

 

“Ah-Ammit dearest maybe your magic is triggered by tiny umbrellas!”

 

“Definitely not! My magic is well guarded.”

 

Ammit crushed the tiny umbrella and took another sip of her drink, daring the others to mention her eyes were faintly glowing dark blue.

 

Sobek smiled. His hands started to shake…he touched his pocket again, turning his head so Ammit would not see the eye glow.

 

Everyone else’s drinks arrived. After seeing Ammit’s the monsters had all decided on varieties of shaved ice and fruit- Nile tried to suppress a giggle as Khepri’s not only came with a tiny umbrella, but a paper rainbow colored pineapple on the straw. Kuk mischievously stuck the umbrella in Khepri’s eye socket. And then Khepri put it in Nile’s sweater srm. Nile sighed and tossed it to Kuk, who tucked it behind a bandage near his earbone.

 

Papyrus wondered how well Nile got along with her siblings? Despite things with Kuk, they seemed to get along.

 

 

**********************************

 

The real trouble did not begin till dessert.

 

Kuk and Khepri were apparently starving- the family did not have a car, and had refused a ride, so they had been hiking from the Underground to get to the restaurant by noon. The brothers tore through their crepe combos so quickly that the waitress asked them if they wanted dessert.

 

“Dessert?”

 

“We have a variety of seasonal cakes, and coffees.  


**“so, this surface food is actually pretty good.”**

Khepri smiled at the fancy cheesecake.

 

Nile tried not to laugh at the hulking grumpy mummy using a tiny dessertspoon to take tiny bites of strawberry cheesecake,

 

_“OH YES, WE HAVE BEEN TRYING OUT NEW RECIPES WITH ALL THE STUFF UP HERE. PY AND I LEARNED HOW TO MAKE PUMPKIN PIE A FEW WEEKS AGO! THE VARIETY OF PRODUCE YOU CAN GROW WITH NATURAL SUNLIGHT IS AMAZING!”_

“NILE IS VERY TALENTED AT BAKING.”

 

_“WELL, YOURS IS NICE, TOO! ESPECIALLY YOUR SPAGHETTI.”_

 

Ammit glared at her coffee…it started hissing with black smoke.

 

“Hmm I have been wondering about the sunlight…I wonder…Sobek! You mentioned there was something about it…You have been glowing your eyes all morning…Do you think the sunlight is causing your magic to flare up?”

 

Sobek looked a bit panicked, he had wanted to move to the surface…and if Ammit thought sunlight would restore magic…it would never happen.

 

“Ammit, you know that my magic is powered by sand not sunlight.”

 

“You were glowing your eyes after you came to the surface, too. I think. Are you sure?”

 

Sobek started shaking again. He wanted to reach his hand to his pocket, but Ammit was watching him like a hawk.

 

“I just think that if this area is triggering your magic it is bad for your health, we should probably go Underground again.”

 

Kuk and Khepri looked a bit disappointed.

 

Kuk spoke up,

 

**“Maybe it is the plates? They are made of some sort of china?”**

 

“PERHAPS JUST THIS AREA IS A BIT SANDY? LIKE IN THE DIRT?”

Ammit glared at Papyrus.

 

“Nile has not been glowing her eyes though.”

 

Nile glowed her eyes quickly a feint green.

 

Khepri face-palmed.

 

Sobek took the opportunity to touch the sand dollar in his pocket. Ammit immediately turned to him, and grabbed the sand dollar out of his hand.

 

“Is this a shell! How did you get this?”

 

Sobek turned to Ammit.

 

“Ammit! It is just a coin thing I found on the side of the road.”

 

Ammit grabbed it,

 

“WELL if it is just litter you found on the roadside, we should just get rid of it! It is probably triggering your magic!”

 

“B-But my magic is what is allowing me to stand!”

 

**“mother, there is nothing wrong with eye glowing according to zhurg.”**

“I cannot hear you while you mumble, Khepri!” Ammit glared at her oldest.

 

Ammit turned to Sobek,

 

“We are all doing our best to help you get better, praying through Zhurg! And here you are going on about using magic! No, Sobek do not lie to me. Papyrus and Nile gave it to you didn’t they? I can tell she is using magic often now.”

 

“D-Dear I told you-”

 

Sobek’s hands shook.  

 

 **“nile, are you really using sand magic?”** Khepri narrowed his eyes.

 

Ammit turned to Nile,

 

“I cannot believe you-first you run away with some skeleton you just met and now you are hurting your own father’s chances of healing!”

 

Nile sat up and actually raised her voice,

 

_“THE MAGIC IS HELPING HIM HEAL! SEE HE SHAKES LESS WITH THE SAND DOLLAR-”_

Kuk gritted his teeth. It was going to be a long road to redemption…maybe he should say something,

 

“ **Uh, he has been better mother…”**

Ammit snapped.

 

“YOU ungrateful brats! ”

“Kuk, I’ll have you know you are on thin ice right now. AND I know what has gotten into you Nile! You have been whoring around with this magic using skeleton too much! HE is making you use your magic!”

Ammit’s eyes glowed blue and she snapped the sand dollar in half with her clenched fist…little bits of sand falling to the table. The tiny birds inside fell out, and Ammit crushed them each with her fingers.

 

Sobek grabbed his head in pain. He clearly wanted to speak up, but found himself in a daze.

 

Papyrus stood up,

 

“I DO NOT UNDERSTAND HOW YOU CAN TALK ABOUT YOUR OWN DAUGHTER THAT WAY. NILE IS… IS SO WONDEFULLY KIND- SHE IS DOING WHATEVER SHE CAN TO HELP HER FATHER OUT! SO THAT HE IS NOT SUFFERING LIKE SHE HAD TO! DO YOU KNOW HOW PAINFUL IT IS TO BE MAGICAL AND BE MAGIC DRAINED?”

 

Ammit’s eyes glowed blue.

 

“Non-bone magic is unclean Nile! You know this! It is a shame we had to magic drain you, but your magic is dangerous and unnatural! Do you know how embarrassing it is that you have such magic-and then you meet a monster and forget everything I taught you! I wish the magic sealing spell had worked-this would have solved this problem!”

 

_“IT ALMOST KILLED ME!”_

 

Sobek turned to Ammit, he was starting to stare at his hands again, counting coins. He managed to look away.

 

“D-Dear. When we met you told me- my magic was charming…you loved it.”

 

**clink**

**clink**

**whiiirrr clink…whiiir clink…**

“And look what happened to you- you were cursed by Zhurg. Can’t you see we are doing this for your sake, dear?”

 

Sobek tried to look at his wife, but was forced to look at his hands.

 

Ammit seemed to almost be pleading to reason with her husband. Part of her was clearly worried.

**…whiiir clink…**

“It just runs in the family…” Sobek was having trouble speaking now.

 

**whiiirrr clink…whiiir clink…**

 

**whiiirrr clink…whiiir clink…**

Sobek’s hands fell to the table. He grasped at the bits of shell…and a tiny burst of yellow entered his eyes.

 

“Ammit…dearest why won’t you listen to me?”

 

“You would just get better if you stopped sneaking magic!”

 

Ammit brushed the shell dust to the floor and turned her head away from Sobek,

 

“Nile, I do not want to see you again unless you are ready to apologize.”

 

Khepri and Kuk gasped.

 

Nile did her best to ignore her mother and siblings,

 

_“FATHER DO YOU WANT TO COME WITH US?”_

Sobek shook his head no, but could no longer speak.

 

Ammit stood up, and grabbing Sobek left the table, walking out the entrance. Kuk and Khepri slowly got up.

 

_“YOU TWO CAN SEE IT RIGHT? THE SHELL MADE HIM BETTER!”_

Khepri turned his head down,

 

**“all I know sister is that zhurg will provide a cure. please stop using magic for our father’s sake.”**

“BUT Khep, it just helps him move.” Kuk looked torn.

_“KHEPRI, HE CAN BARELY SPEAK NOW!_

**“would you two stop! look you ruined a perfectly nice lunch by upsetting mother?”**

Khepri’s eye glowed for a second. He smacked himself in the head and followed his mother out the door.

 

Kuk looked torn, but followed them out after giving Papyrus and Nile money for the family’s half of the meal.

Papyrus and Nile were left with the check, a giant fruit basket, and cold stares from the humans in the restaurant.

*********************

 

Sans was sandwiched between Grillby and cousin Sparkus at the fire concert. Cousin Sparkus was in fact a yellow fire monster who was constantly sparking yellow star shaped flickers. Sans would have liked to say he got used to it, but an hour into the concert and he still flinched every time a harmless bit of fire hit his bones.

 

Sparkus’ wife, Firebun, Grillby’s Unlce Flamiel, Aunt JANAFIRE, Fiametta, Afi, cousin Emberry, and cousin FUKU’s husband Toddflame were all taking part in the fire elemental concert, lined up at the front of an old fire church, taking up the stage.

 

As the concert started, each member held out a music sheet in front of them, and sang along. The lyrics were printed out for the audience to follow along-although they were printed in Old Fire.

 

Grillby was not religious, and tried to act like he was indifferent, but Sans noticed that the elemental was having a good time and singing along to a few of his favorites.

 

It was pretty outstanding! Sans’ eyes glowed with magical fire as the singers sang in traditional crackling fire speak.

 

About halfway through the concert, each elemental burned up the paper sheet they were singing from, and held a partners hand. The singers started to merge together and apart to hit different notes!

 

 

It was stunning.

 

Afi’s orange red merged with Fiametta’s cherry, firebun’s bright white-yellow merged with JANAFIRE’s Blue…all these mosnters started merging in different combinations, with neighbors and monsters that even Grillby did not know.

 

As the concert continued the monsters merged more and more, in complex patterns-colors brighter and more magical than Sans could imagine, although Sans noticed it oddly reminded him of square dancing.

 

The skeleton started the concert trying to understand the fire-speak, but had given up and was just enjoying it. That being said, now he recognized a familiar tune starting to be hummed by the fire…

 

“…o0…o0oo..o0O…o…o0ooO…o0oooOo…”

 

The fire monsters all started to come together to form a single grand fire- glowing with many reds, blues, yellows, and oranges…

 

“…o0…o0oo..o0O…o…o0ooO…o0oooOo…”

 

 

“we wish you a merry gyftmas?”

 

Grillby nodded and hugged Sans… it was sweet he was starting to pick up fire phrases.

 

“…Yes Sans! I think this is the finally this year…”

 

A yellow fire person with his flame hair somehow slicked back stepped out of formation,

 

**“…This year… we welcome… all monsters to join in for the Gyftmas finally!...”**

Cousin Sparkus ran up to the blob of fire where his wife was. FUKU cradled little Emmaflame as well. Even Furnicia, grabbed Suss the smokemonster, Charrles, and Fireo to join in.

 

“oh do you want to join grillby?”

 

“…Awww…well yes…but not without you…”

 

“we can go, i mean, if you don’t mind staying at the edge.”

 

There were a few rock monsters and other non-fire elemental monsters who were mostly holding back, and in fact moving towards the back of the church. It was heating up as the large fire grew and started to sing.

 

“…OK… but when I signal…can you transport us to the back…”

 

The pews of the old fire church emptied and monsters ran up to join their friends and family members in the grand fire. The temperature of the church increased to dangerous levels as the majestic fire grew and grew. Sans and Grillby nodded Grillby carefully walked Sans to the edge of the fire. He held Sans hand when a red fiery hand came out of the main fire and pulled him in. Grillby handed Sans his glasses and jumped in, his smile growing wide as his head merged with the fire- but he kept one holding Sans hand tightly.

 

A few other mixed fire monster families were doing the same-Suss the smokemonster and Charrles were holding Fireo’s hand on the other side.

 

Sans smiled and glowed his eyes as brightly as he could. The fire had grown to the ceiling- and if he squinted he could see vague shapes of fire having fun rising to the top.

 

The singing started and Sans tried to sing along, the whole time looking at the enormous fire next to him blazing brightly. Grillby’s hand squeezed Sans’ tightly a few times.

 

 

“…o0…o0oo..o0O…o…o0ooO…o0oooOo…”

 

“weee…wish you a merry Gyftmas…”

 

“…o0…o0oo..o0O…o…o0ooO…o0oooOo…”

 

“weee…wish you a merry Gyftmas…”

 

“…0oo…o.o0ooO…o0o 0OOOOoo!...”

 

“and a happy new yeaaarr!”

 

Grillby’s hand desperately squeezed Sans’.

 

Oh Asgore. Sans short cutted himself and a reformed Grillby to the back of the church, just before a huge fireball exploded and shot out the front of the stage.

 

The first three rows were engulfed in flames.

 

“wow talk about ending the show with a bang!”

 

“…SANS!... I was a bit worried there…Do not wait so long next time!...are you ok?..”

 

“heh sorry to make you worry grillbz…”

 

Sans held Grillby’s hand and the two watched as elementals tumbled out of the fire inferno to tumultuous applause.

 

 

The leader of the choir- the yellow elemental with the slick backed hair went to the front one last time,

 

“…Thank you all for another wonderful year!...I have an exciting announcement I would like to share with you all!...”

 

The crowd murmered as families filed back toward the pews.

 

“…This is our last performance Undergorund…”

 

The murmurs got louder,

 

“…WHAT?...”

 

“….HuHo?”

 

“…o0oo…”

 

“…But not our last performance!...As you are aware…almost all fire families are leaving for the surface between now and next year to a warmer region…this includes my family… King Asgore…has graciously given us a new fire church…in that region…It is a beautiful facility in a wonderful desert!...I will be opening it in the new year!...So please come to the new location once you have moved!...”

 

The fire priest started handing out cards with the location of the new Church. The picture looked gorgeous.

 

Most of the elementals seemed very excited, but Afi and Fiametta looked concerned. The two were still embracing from the choir, and Afi looked positively ashen.

 

******************************

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woof- that chapter took a while to write. I blame the number of meetings I have been having at work... too much science


	55. Gyftmas Stories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans and Papyrus meet the fire family and enjoy a Holiday story from Afi

Sans got a text from Papyrus.

 

**MANAGED TO SURVIVE EATING CREPES, NYEH HEH HEH. NILE’S FAMILY WERE…WELL…NOT THE BEST. DO YOU MIND PICKING US UP?**

*******

 

 

The elementals all placed their presents for each other under the town Gyftmas tree, which was a giant rock formation shaped to look like a tree, the evening after the fire concert.

 

Grillby’s family was absolutely delighted to see Papyrus and Nile place the giant fruit basket under the neighborhood’s Gyftmas tree as well as a proper present that looked suspiciously like a bundle of logs wrapped in wrapping paper. That being said, it fit right in, as a lot of the gifts under the tree looked suspiciously like wrapped up firewood.

 

The whole town seemed to be outside-kids making ‘magma men’ and swimming in the lava pools. Charrles and some of the neighborhood kids were making a huge magma man at the front of the house.

 

Afi seemed to be delighted to see Charrles and the neighborhood kids and had put out a plate of tiny lava cakes for them to snack on. The old lava monster sat on the front porch and smiled as the kids gobbled up the sweets. Suss and Fireo smiled and helped their son by grabbing a fireproof hat and some rocks for eyes.

 

Cousin FUKU and Toddflame were holding little Emmaflame in the lava pool closest to Grillby’s parent’s house, holding her tightly while she waved her tiny arms in the lava trying to splash.

 

Sans, Papyrus, Nile and Grillby chatted a bit. Nile and Papyrus were now regretting their decision to wear extra fuzzy sweaters, as the heat was ridiculous…thankfully Sans had bought several gallon jugs of water after the last family vacation.

 

“…Hello cousin FUKU…it is nice to see you and ToddFlame again!...and meet little Emmaflame properly!…”

 

FUKU and Toddflame smiled at Grillby, although Sans noticed that Toddflame’s smile was hard to discern. FUKU was a magical green-fired elemental, and Toddflame was a red elemental wearing a suit and tie. Emma’s flame was a swirling mixture of magical and natural fire-green and red, but bits of her were bright hot blue. The baby elemental seemed to have trouble forming arms, and was only occasionally forming them to slap the magma surface to try and splash it.

 

FUKU passed the fireling to Grillby and let herself sink into the nice warm bubbly pool.

 

“…Cousin!... it is nice to see you, too…and meet Sans and his family… are you his skeleton parents…”

 

Papyrus looked aghast, did he need to work out more? Was he looking more aged than Sans? Oh Asgore…

 

Sans sighed, was he really that young looking?

 

Nile wondered if the sweater really suited her.

 

“MY NAME IS PAPYRUS, AND SANS IS MY OLDER BROTHER, I AM JUST TALLER, NYEH HEH HEH. THIS IS MY LOVELY GIRLFIREND NILE THE MUMMY.”

 

FUKU turned an embarrassed shade of bright mint green.

 

“…I am so sorry!...I…um have not met any skeleton or mummy monsters before…uh…uh…”

 

Sans stepped in,

 

“no worries. papyrus and nile are just a very cool and mature dudes so you might think they are older. and well, skeletons do not have skin so it is hard to tell age.”

 

Nile and Papyrus smiled and FUKU relaxed.

 

“TO BE HONEST IT IS HARD TO TELL HOW OLD FLAME MONSTERS ARE TOO, SINCE YOU ARE ALL SO BRIGHT AND FIERY, SO DO NOT WORRY.”

 

FUKU and Toddflame smiled,

 

“…Yes…Everyone keeps assuming Todd and I are older, too…but perhaps that is because we had a kid young…Grillby you have not met your baby cousin yet have you?...”

 

Grillby’s jack-o-lantern smile grew to almost split his face as he was passed Emmaflame to hold.

 

“…Aww and it is nice to meet my little cousin…wow her flame is so healthy!...”

 

Grillby rocked Emmaflame in his arms, and the little monsterling formed an arm for a second to try to grab his bowtie.

 

“…O0ooh!...Go0d j0b Emma!...Heh, Grillby…you have a way with kids…”

Grillby blushed a bit as Sans caught his eye.

 

“…Do you want to hold her, Sans and family?...” FUKU smiled at the skeletons.

 

Sans nodded happily and did his best to gently rock the little fame. She was, unsurprisingly super hot to hold, causing his arms to blacken a bit. Sans winced for a second but smiled, thankfully he had only lost 1 HP. The little HP symbol flashed in the air.

 

“…Oh sorry!...She does not have good temperature control yet…perhaps it is best to bring her back to daddy…”

 

Toddflame- scooped the little baby back into his arms expertly, giving his daughter a hug.

 

Sans smiled, wow little elementals were adorable, he hoped their kid would look like that…heh.

 

Well, still…I mean, you know if Grillby wanted.

 

Sans ate a small snack to get his HP up again, Papyrus and Grillby were looking quite concerned at him.

 

“heh, don’t worry grillbz, it’s higher than 1 now.”

 

“…It is higher than 0ne?...” Toddflame looked worried.

 

“…Oh nothing…” Grillby did not want Sans to have to share that information with his entire extended family but Sans spoke up anyway,

 

“oh, uh, i just have a small hp pool, it is probably why i am so short, heh.”

 

“…Oh Cousin Grillby…you always worry too much about HP…and yet there you are staying in the cold…come on in and warm your flames up.”

 

“…Well…if you do not mind guys…”

 

“we went to the beach together, and take Undyne’s kids to the pool. go ahead and jump in, grillbz.” Sans smiled and sat next to the pool.

 

Papyrus and Nile nodded along it was only fair after all the Pool parties at Undyne’s house.

 

Grillby smiled, threw his shirt off and did a little cannonball into the pool, his flames turning bright yellow from the heat. Sans smiled seeing Grillby so full of energy.

 

“…Now cousin what is this about going to a beach?...like a sand beach?...”

 

********

 

The group chatted happily, FUKU and Toddflame were impressed with Grillby’s tale of paragliding over the ocean, and Sans showed them pictures off his phone. Fiametta, Aunt JANAFIRE, Sparkus, and Firebun came by to coo over Emmaflame and hear the story,

 

Fiametta seemed shocked,

 

“…YOU did what!...Son…I know you are young but you are not waterproof!...”

 

The other elementals looked worried, too.

 

“…No, no, it is ok, I had Sans with me…Sans…do you mind?...”

 

Sans nodded and gently lifted Grillby up out of the pool with gravity magic.

 

 

“…Oh that is right…” Fiametta had forgotten Sans could do that.

 

FUKU, Toddflame, JANAFIRE, Sparkus and Firebun on the other hand were super impressed.

 

“…0h…Sans…can you lift me up?...that is s0 c00l…”

 

Sans obliged and lifted Toddflame and Fuku up together,

 

“…0h sweet, cann0nball!...”

 

Sans stopped the gravity magic and the elementals got to splash into the lava to everyone’s delight.

 

“…So do all skeletons have gravity magic?...” JANAFIRE was interested.

 

“no, not all of us, paps has some, too though.”

 

“UGH BUT I CAN ONLY GO DOWN, NOT UP LIKE SANS.”

 

Grillby squeezed Sans hand,

 

“…Auntie, it is like the elemental equivalents…of someone who can do an individual explosion…or heat to 1600 C…”

 

Aunt JANAFIRE looked impressed.

 

“…Wow!...Well it is wonderful how magical you are, your family must be so proud!...This family does not have any good melters, although we do not know about Emmaflame yet…but…Sparkus do you mind?...”

 

Sparkus smiled,

 

 

“…Ok….just for he gUEsts…but I am not helpINg cut the logs if I do this….”

 

Jannafire nodded,

 

“…Ok, now non-elementals…tAKE COVER!...”

 

Papyrus, Sans and Nile backed up and stood towards the street. Sparkus saw where they were, took a few steps back, and started to draw in light. The elemental went from yellow to white and what looked like beams of energy were drawn into him.

 

Cousin Furnicia and Emberry walked out of the kitchen. Furnicia ran over to Sparkus,

 

“…Hey, wAIT…fOR…mE…tHIS is my ONE thing…” and also started to draw in light. Cousin Furnicia, was shaped like Magmus, although her head was rather dome shaped and she seemed to have more rocky bits and oozing lava.

 

“…Furnicia!... Not so big we are showing guests-” Grillby was a bit panicked as his cousin gave a wicked grin.

 

Grillby ran to Sans as Both Furnicia and Sparkus exploded- Sparkus- letting out his fire in a perfect sphere of yellow light and sparks- It was dazzling and reminiscent of the explosion at the fire church. The other elementals basked in the light- and for a split second Sparkus looked like a human covered in white light, but his flames came back in a second. Sans wondered if that was what all elementals looked like at their core.

 

 

Sans did not have long to wonder though. Grillby tried to cover Sans and company as Furnicia Exploded globs of Lava into the street. Sans used his gravity magic to stop most of the lava spurt, but missed a small chunk of lava and rock. Grillby lost balance and fell onto Papyrus, who proceeded to get his other flailing arm covered in the lava Sans missed.

 

“GAAAHHH!”

 

Papyrus lost 40 HP and popped his arm off to shake the lava off of it, stamping on it to kick the flames off and finally using his own gravity magic to push the remaining lava off, all while dancing around in pain from the burning.

 

Grillby tried to pick up the arm to help get the fire off of it.

 

 

“GAAAH! GRILLBY, PERHAPS A HAND MADE OF FLAMES COULD NOT BE WHAT TOUCHES MY ARM RIGHT NOW.”

 

Sans carefully took Papyrus’ arm, brushed it off, and popped it back in for him.

 

Furnicia ran up to Papyrus.

 

 

“…Oh…Uh…well, sORry…there…I always get a bit carried away…”

 

Emberry ran into the house and snagged a piece of pie from dessert, which upped the skeleton’s HP back to full.

 

Furnicia, Emberry, and Grillby apologized,

 

“…Uh..I shOULd be mORe…careful…but I hOPe it was cool…”

 

“…I am so sorry Papyrus…”

 

“…Papyrus is it…sorry Mr. Skeleton…uh…at least your son is OK?...”

 

It was at this point that Papyrus just sat down while Grillby face-palmed.

 

“IT IS OK, NYEH HEH HEH. AND FURNICIA, THE EXLPOSION WAS REALLY COOL, I AM GLAD I GOT TO SEE YOUR AND SPARKUS’ ABILITY! BUT I AM SANS’ YOUNGER BROTHER….”

 

“…Oh…Oh…you are taller…so I thought…oh…” Emberry’s orange lava turned a bit blue.

 

Papyrus pulled some MTT bishie crème out of a bag and tried to spruce up his arm. The arm looked pretty blackened despite the MTT creme. Papyrus then decided he might look younger if he put some under his eyes, too. At this point the demonic bandages from the mask incident were gone, but the affected bone tissue was a little darker and fragile. The crème did help a bit.

 

Firebun came up,

 

**“…I do have some healing magic…but um…I have to touch your arm to heal it…so how about we wait till tomorrow…when it is less heat sensitive…”**

Nile pulled out some bandages from her purse.

 

_“OH PY, HOW ABOUT WE PUT THESE ON TILL TOMORROW?”_

Papyrus winced as the bandages were added but seemed all right, he smiled at Firebun and Emberry and even Furnicia who had gotten him some water.

 

Nile hugged him.

 

_“HEH, I AM SORRY IT HURTS, BUT YOU DO LOOK A LITTLE CUTE IN BANDAGES.”_

And Papyrus could not help but smile.

 

Grillby spent the next half an hour bringing Sans, Nile, and Papyrus to meet every member of his family to avoid any more confusion on how Papyrus was related to Sans before returning to the lava pool

 

 

*******************

 

Toddflame and FUKU were explaining how they met.

 

 

“…And well then whoops…little Emmaflame came along…but we were planning on marriage anyway…so here we are…”

 

Emmaflame and Toddflame had just graduated high school, so they were a bit young, but they clearly cared for each other.

 

 

Sparkus let himself float up to the top of the magical lava pool before straightening up.

 

 

“….Oh wow look at her!... her fire patterns is growing to be quite unique!...”

 

FUKU nodded and hugged her green and red-flamed daughter,

 

“…Yes… our doctor was surprised, too…they thought she would just take after my magical fire or Todd’s normal one…I mean, look at me, I took after my mother’s…they think that monsterlings born on the surface have been healthier though…”

 

“WOAH REALLY, THE SURFACE IS BETTER FOR FIRE MONSTERS?” Papyrus looked interested.

 

Todd nodded,

 

“…Yes…I mean…It makes sense that the sunlight is helping m0nsters gr0w…but well…the d0ctors are saying that because humans use s0 little magic there is an excess 0f it 0n the surface…”

 

Cousin Sparkus sparked nervously, his yellow flames flitting quickly.

 

“…wE might try to hAve a mONsterling again, tOO…although…well…wE do nOT want to get Our hopes Up…”

 

Firebun, a red-orange flaming rabbit monster with long fangs, nodded her head and hugged Sparkus nervously. She spoke up, in a small voice,

 

“… **I have animal monster in me, so our chances are low…”**

Firebun smiled at little Emmaflame and held her for a few seconds.

 

**“…ohh! She is so sweet…”**

 

Grillby smiled at them, they had been trying for eleven years to have a monsterling… they had had several false alarms…and a heartbreaking loss. Firebun seemed like she was willing to try once more though.

 

“…yOu know Sans… your monsterling cOUld be powered up too!...”

 

Sans blushed so brightly that the others started to wonder if he was part-elemental.

 

“OH, WOW. MAYBE NECROTICS WILL HAVE LESS TROUBLE ON THE SURFACE, TOO.”

 

“…Oh…are necrotics having trouble with monsterlings…” Fireo and Suss strode in to the conversation. Fireo was a red fire elemental with a somehow almost chiseled looking face and hair. Suss was also quite handsome, but his thick grey smoke billowed over the others.

 

“OH WELL, I WAS TOLD THAT, NYEH HEH HEH, BUT, WELL SO DID FISH MONSTERS AND OUR FRIEND UNDYNE AND ALPHYS JUST HAD A CLUTCH.”

 

Fiametta stuck her head out of the house,

 

“…Hey…it is time to cook!...Brother…Grillbert…do you mind lending a hand…”

 

Sans, Papyrus, and Nile stepped forward to help, too but Fiametta shooed them away,

 

“…Guests should relax…I do not need that much help…”

 

Grillby left Sans with the rest of the family, but he knew they would all get along. Fireo and Grillby were led to the house.

 

 

*****

Papyrus and Nile got into a conversation with Firebun about the best workout that did not deplete magic and Sans and Sparkus talked about what it was like to work for Asgore. Sparkus had been a secretary at the palace,

 

“…s0 y0u lived in Sn0wden!...and were the judge…what a c0mmute!...”

 

_“OH NOT FOR SANS HE IS AMAZING!”_

“oh come on nile.”

 

_“SANS YOU SHOULD SHOW THEM!”_

 

Sans nodded,

 

“ok, ok, but I already picked up Paps and Nile from the surface, so just a little jump.”

 

Papyrus nodded with relief.

 

Sans short cutted from the circle of conversation to the roof of the house.

 

 

“…W0ah!...That is amazing!...”

 

Toddflame’s flames jumped a foot. While FUKU clapped carefully while holding Emma.

 

Cousin Sparkus and Firebun looked so impressed they merged slightly.

 

 

“…Sans you are going to fit right into this family…”

 

*****

 

Fireo shook his head,

 

“…Grillby I am surprised your father was alright with a skeleton…”

 

Grillby bristled a bit,

 

“…My father likes Sans very much…”

 

“…He somehow passed the dating fight…well I suppose Afi does not have as much fire as he used to…”

 

“…Excuse me!...” Grillby’s flames spiked unto the air in annoyance.

 

Fiametta walked into the room, and Grillby decided not to press, as it would probably upset her a bit. Fiametta had no idea why Grillbert was fuming and Fireo was smirking, but at this point they needed to cut the wood up or it would never be ready in time. The pair silently helped Fiametta chop wood.

 

***************************

 

Gyftmas dinner was a lot of fun for everyone. Papyrus was being given extra portions of candied yams and turkey by all of Grillby’s Aunts and Uncles who felt bad about earlier and were happy that some monster wanted to eat the water filled yams that Furnicia kept insisting on making.

 

“…thE mOLTEN mARSHMALLOWS…ARE SO good though!...”

 

Nile had bonded with FUKU and Toddflame and was chatting with them. Sans was happily talking with cousin Sparkus and Magmus with a glass of wine. Grillby was attempting to enjoy the chargrilled logs marinated in fish liver oil, and other new creations from the surface/ Underground cooking.

 

“…Grillbert…don’t you just love Aunt JANA’s Fishy oil ash logs?...”

 

“…Try these dried wildflower coated and oiled chips…”

 

“…GrillbERT…yOU mUST trY these amAZING dried grASS SALad!...” Afi wiggled a bowl of grass clippings in Grillby’s face.

 

“…Don’t you walk on grass?...”

 

“…And m0w it!...this stuff even has m0wer grease 0n it! and they were GIVING IT AWAY last fall!” Toddflame seemed excited as he plopped a huge serving of the grass trimming salad on Grillby’s plate.

 

“man grillbz, you are lucky you get to eat that! be careful, the taste will mow you down.”

 

“…Hahahah!...”

 

“…Ohohoho…”

 

Grillby’s family loved Sans puns, even the awful ones, but did not really want to eat some human’s hedge clippings and grass cuttings. Still, Todd seemed like an all right guy…ugh.

 

Grillby attempted to pick grass clippings up with a fork, he eventually go some and tasted it… wow this was pretty bad…and the engine grease smelled awful. Oh well Sans did not really have a nose so…

 

Grillby brought the plate to his head and poured the rest of the grass on his head,

 

“…Wow Todd this is so great!...”

 

Todd looked so happy, his flames twirled.

 

“…You could serve it at your restaurant Grillbert!...” Fiametta was starting to warm up to his bar.

 

“…If more elementals come…I will add…something like it…”

 

“…Oh, so it is not that popular of a restaurant?...” Flameo droned while flicking bits of grass off of his plate so he would not have to eat it.

 

Grillby’s flames shot up slightly. Before he could say anything Fiametta spoke up,

 

“…No, it is actually quite popular with monsters and humans…But Grillbert, will probably add more elemental dishes once elementals surface…”

 

Grillby smiled and nodded,

 

“…In fact, I was thinking about adding this cupcake dessert…perhaps you can give me some feedback…”

 

Flameo smiled cunningly,

 

“…I am just surprised you are still running a dusty old bar…it was fun as a high school job…but you know once you get in a serious relationship you need better paying work…”

 

Grillby sighed, but this time Afi spoke up,

 

“..Ohh hoo hoo…Flameo…you know there are other types of jobs besides government work right?...Besides Sans and Grillbert have almost been dating a year now…”

 

Flameo turned to Sans,

 

“…So tell me Sans…what is your profession?...I suppose you work for Grillbert…”

 

“oh, um, i am an astrophysicist…so I mostly crunch numbers…but uh yeah, I met Grillby in Snowden…”

 

Flameo scowled, trying to think of something wrong about being an astronomer.

 

“I WORK PART TIME AT GRILLBY’S, BUT I ALSO MODEL AND TEACH GYM CLASS. AND NILE IS AN ARCHITECT.”

 

Flameo turned to Papyrus in surprise, seeing a weakness,

 

“…Oh a model…Wait…really…you must be really in shape for your age!...Well if you have any pointers for me…”

 

“SO ARE YOU INTERSTED IN EXERCISE TIPS?”

 

“…Absolutely…tell me everything…” Flameo snickered and Fiametta hit him with her best angry stare.

 

Papyrus frowned but good naturedly started giving Flameo some exercise tips,

 

“WELL THEN NYEH HEH HEH, FIRST NEVER EVER TRY TO OVERLOAD ON CARBS AND LIFT WEIGHTS JUST TO BUILD MASS- YOU HAVE TO LET IT HAPPEN NATURALLY OR YOU WILL JUST BUILD MUSCLE, OR ERR...SHAPE THAT YOU DO NOT USE… I MEAN UNLESS YOU LIKE THE LOOK…NEXT I ALWAYS LIKE TO START WITH STRETCHING MY LEGS…”

 

Flameo might have been laughing at Papyrus at first, but after twenty minutes of detailed exercise regimen pointers it was Papyrus who had the last laugh. The skeleton killed Flameo with kindness while the rest of the family got dessert ready.

 

“AND THAT IS WHY YOU NEVER EAT RIGHT BEFORE CRUNCHES…”

 

“hoo..hoo…I wish you would get GrillbERT to exercise with yOU…that was gOOD advice…” Afi had listened to the entire discussion.

 

Afi laughed as Grillby passed around his cupcakes he had made for dessert-with the holly leaf icing and infusion. Grillby had also added mint to the icing…and a bit of Irish crème to the filling. The outside of the cupcake was vanilla. The sides had been painted in white chocolate for the non-elementals, and had been coated in crunchy pine crumbles for the elementals. Each cupcake had a sugar shaped Holly leaf on top. Grillby could not help but smile broadly as his relatives looked excited.

 

“…Grillbert…these look amazing!...” Uncle Flamiel ruffled Grillby’s flame hair.

 

“…sO…yOUNG and talented!...” Furnicia elbowed Grillby.

 

“…Way to go cousin!...” FUKU squeed over the tiny mint leaf decoration.

 

The elementals dug in, and were surprised as their flames shot up and sparked.

 

“…OOH!...little brother this is fun!” Magmus whose flames usually did not dance off his magma body was delighted.

 

Thankfully Grillby had made enough that monsters could have a second one. Even Fiametta who was usually adamant about weight watching popped a second one in her mouth.

 

“… **The flavors are so good Grillby** …” Firebun nibbled the Holly leaf on the second cupcake.

 

“…00h…is the alc0hol a rare surface type?…” Toddflame was really feeling the Irish crème.

 

 _“OH, AND IS THIS A NEW TYPE OF CHOCOALTE?”_ Nile loved the white chocolate.

Grillby explained,

 

“…Yes…the alcohol is common on the surface, and white chocolate is more available for cooking purposes…”

 

“…OOH I really want to go to the surface now…” Emberry was excited.

 

“…Well…I suppose it is alright…but the chocolate is rather melted…” Flameo lamented while devouring his cupcake.

 

“…Perhaps it is melting from your hot head…” Fiametta elbowed her brother in the fire ribs while the rest of the room erupted in laughter.

 

Grillby thought it was a shame that Uncle Flameo did not have a nose, or else he could have upturned it.

 

**************************************************

Dessert was winding up, and the family decided to go sit by the fireplace together…the fireplace arguably being the entire room, but in addition Afi lit several torches on the walls in sconces.

 

“i had not noticed those torches be-fire.”

 

Grillby nodded,

 

“…He only lights them for special occasions…but the night before Gyftmas we like to do a candle lighting ceremony for the New Year…”

 

To Sans surprise a lot of the elementals pulled candles out of their pockets and did not light them. Grillby gave Sans, Nile, and Papyrus a candle and a lighter.

 

“…HOO hoo hoo…now who wANts to perform the cANdle ceremOMNY… this year…” Afi smiled.

 

Flameo started to step forward but JANAFIRE smiled and boomed out,

 

“…Afi…you have to do it…you are the best at it!...”

 

“…Oh HOO HOO…yOU want a pOOR OLD soggy flame like me to do IT?...Hoo HOO…”

 

Afi seemed like he had a few trepidations this year but was happy.

 

“…Afi..Afi Afi!”

 

Charrles hopped up and down, and even FUKU seemed excited to hear Afi tell the story.

 

Fiametta turned off the electric lighting and the elementals all gathered around their family patriarch.

 

Afi chuckled happily and sat down in front of the fireplace,

 

“…Hoo Hoo hoo…Well…here is the tale…of the cANdle ceremony…that is really called the cERemony of shared fire…that my parents…and their pAREnts…and their great-great-great grANdparents…have completed once a year for gENeratIONs…before GYFTmas existed…prepare your cANdle…”

 

Afi took a candle out of the cabinet…a huge one the size of his head and he began to light it, with a roaring flame that he shaped with his hands. The flame was so bright Sans had to squint.

 

“…a long…lONG time AGO…there wAS ONce a time when thERE WAs no fire…”

 

“ooooOooh…” everyone went, going along with the story by memory.

 

“…No fire!” Charrles exclaimed.

 

Afi’s face lit up and he formed a pair of magma-ey eyebrows that raised high and raised his arms up high,

 

“…THAT is rIGHT!…NONE! hOO hoo hoo!... whEN the earth was nEW…juST bORN into the universe…sHE was nAUGHT but STONE and DUST…”

 

Afi formed his candle’s fire into a sphere like shape…almost perfectly smooth, save a wisp of flame here and there colored red and dull.

 

The elementals all gasped…most of them had heard this tens of times, but it was still fun.

 

Charrles yelled out,

 

“…but what about the elementals…were they cold?…”

 

“…ActuALLY…wITH no fIRE tHERE wERE nO ELEMENTALS…”

 

Charrles looked shocked.

 

“…for wHILE the eARTH stood in hER dusty state thERE wAS nO lIFE…no fire elEMENTALS…no animal mONSTERS…no skELETONS…nO hUMANS…”

 

 

“NO SKELETONS!” Papyrus could not imagine such a sad world.

 

Afi smiled and rotated the fire sphere in front of him.

 

“…hOO hOO HOO…and the poor eARTh…she wanted to cRY…fOR she was so cOLD and lONEly…wiTH no LIFE…but…sHE had no teARS…”

 

 

Afi colored the flame, to an even duller red, barely a dusty cherry.

 

“…thE pOOR eARTH wAS ready to simply collapse…”

 

Afi made the flame waver.

 

“…bUT that is whEN deep inside the eARTH…she fELT a feint wARMTH…the first fire…deep inside her…”

 

Afi turned the sphere a little brighter more of a yellow.

 

“…aND it grew and grew and grew…”

 

Afi looked at Fiametta who helped color the sphere a bright hot orange-yellow.

 

“…And finally the EArth erUPted with hAppiness…”

 

The sphere erupted with little volcanoes sparking out of the candle…

 

“…the EARTH was now truly alive!...The lAva heated the wORLD…and let stEAM and rAIN fALL…the lAVA shifted the lAND and let mOUNTAINS and vALLEYS be cARVED…”

 

 

The sphere of fire changed colors as Fiametta and JANA fire added reds and blue flames to represent the mountains and the water.

 

 

“…And of COURSE wiTH the wATER cAME the plANTS and anIMALS…”

 

 

Fuku used her flames to add green to the sphere…and Grillby and Sparkus added little bits of fire and sparks for animals.

 

“…AND all monsters and hUMAns were thUS boRN…”

 

 

Now everyone was adding their fire, and Suss and Charrles added smoke. Grillby, pushed Sans Papyrus and Nile forward who each added some fire from the lighter to represent their own flames.

 

Afi smiled as the three added the flames.

 

“…thUS…the Earth rejoiced…as it was truly alive…”

 

 

Afi spun the earth happily, although Sans noticed it flickered for a second.

 

“...And it is sAID…that the fire elEMENtals hOLD a special place in the hEART of the EARTH…as sHE wAS so hAPPY to see uS emERGE and bRING lIFE…”

 

Afi shaped the sphere to a soul or heart shape and had it pulse. It was beautiful to see the many colored sphere pulse and wave with the many flames.

 

Everyone cheered.

 

“…NOW every monster!...lIGHT your cAndle with the wORLDFire…and dO Not let it go out…”

 

Afi looked at the candle fire and nodded as it flicked.

 

Now every elemental circled around Afi’s candle and lit their own small one. Most of the elementals tried to form their lit candle into a sphere shape, and Grillby helped Sans, Papyrus and Nile with theirs briefly.   It was a pretty candle made up of everyone’s flames come together.

 

Afi shifted a bit he was having trouble keeping the flame lit at this point, and his own magma flames dulled to dull red,

 

“…nOW…since this is a special yEAR…where wE are seeing the surface…I wILL shARE the lAST pART of the STORY…”

 

Afi shifted a bit and the adults murmured. Had Afi been keeping part of the story secret for all these years?

 

Afi’s flame flickered uncontrollably, and just managed to stay lit.

 

“…ONCe a fIRE elemENTal is BORN ThEY lEAVE’s the eARTH’s heart...The separation…mEANS we are dESTINED to sOMEDay…go oUT…BUT it is sAID that whEN our fire gOES oUT…we rejoin her hEART and rejoin the lIFE GIVING fire...”

 

Afi held his Candle up in the air and then the whole room gasped as he blew it out-the multicolored sparks disappearing into the room.

 

“…SOMEday…Your own fire May go Out!...But it wILL go ON…if It shares wITH the rest of the wORLD…” Afi pointed to all the other candles that had been lit and smiled.

 

Half the family clapped and the other half looked concerned.

 

Sans hugged Grillby, who could not hide a concerned flicker in his flame.

 

 

“…Hoo HOO hOO!...You are all tOO serious!...I just want you to know the LAST part before you all gO to the sURFACE!…Now light the Gyftmas fire!...”

 

The elementals clapped for Afi and then used their candles to light the central fireplace. After much hugging and happiness, every monster smiled and sat around the fireplace.


	56. Gyftmas plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ok, wrapping up Gyftmas!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the big delays lately. I hope the double post makes up for it!

The night passed with the family roasting chestnuts that had been shipped in from the surface in their hands and catching up on news and gossip.

 

Sans was a skeleton prone to sleepiness…and after Papyrus handed him some warmed hot coco with milk, and Grillby was so nice and toasty, and Papyrus handed him the third cocoa with warm milk and vanilla added, and the family was singing peaceful songs about stars, and Papyrus gave him one last hot cocoa, he could not help but let his eye sockets fall.

 

“HERE SANS A WARM DRINK WILL KEEP YOU UP, NYEH HEH HEH.”

 

“bro-thanks for the drink but, he you know actually, whenever i get warm and comfy i just. i just. huh.”

 

Sans leaned onto Grillby’s shoulder,

 

“i am super awake right now, don’t worry. heh, just give me five minutes.”

 

Sans demonstrated his alertness by closing his eyes.

 

Ppayrus coyly went to go chat with Sparkus, while Grillby caught up with Firebun. He heard a snore from Sans…

 

“…Hmm…well it has been five minutes perhaps I should wake hi-”

 

Papyrus jumped away from his conversation with Sparkus,

 

“OH, NO GRILLBY. SANS IS SOOOO EXHAUSTED FROM USING HIS MAGIC ALL DAY. AND I NEVER LET HIM SLEEP THIS MUCH! LET HIM SLEEP IN ON GYFTMAS.”

 

Grillby smiled, asleep Sans was pretty cute, and Papyrus was right, the skeleton was probably exhausted.

 

Papyrus waited for Grillby to actually carry him off to bed…

 

***

 

Papyrus remembered gathering around the tree at Snowdin to get presents, and before that at the school…each year a certain some-monster had given him an extra present labeled from Santa.

 

Technically, Sans always got him something practical-a scarf, a new shirt, a puzzle book, but Santa for year after year gave him something a bit more rare-a figurine…which had been expensive underground as plastic was a limited resource and the monsters did not have the resources to make large quantities for non-essentials.

 

Well Sans could not fool the Great Papyrus! Well…he has figured it out as a teen. It had obviously been his brother getting him those things over the years, while he only had ever given Sans essentials and lectures about cleaning his socks.

 

And even worse…Sans had helped pay for the car…and a little more than half of the house had been paid for by Sans. Sure Papyrus had chipped in, and Sans would tell any monster that they split the cost… but Papyrus knew in his soul he would not be able to live in such a nice place with his previous sentry salary.

 

But, NYEHHEHHEH, now with three jobs Papyrus could finally afford to get something nice for his brother.

 

So…Papyrus snuck to the Gyftmas tree once Sans was asleep…with Nile ready to cover that he was asleep in bed. He found the fruit basket, which Sans had not noticed was a little too heavy… and took out the present that was pre-wrapped and hidden inside.

 

****

Grillby was usually enjoyed a good night’s sleep. He woke up early for work…but if he could sleep in he would-there was no rush. When he was a monsterling he had even slept in for Gyftmas…which Afi, Fiametta, and Magmus appreciated. They were a family who appreciated a calm peaceful Gyftmas celebrati-

 

“…ChARRLES…I sAID knock first…”

 

Magmus, wearing an enormous pair of pajama pants with little paintbrushes on them and a matching pajama shirt, and Charrles in bunny pajamas barged through the door.

 

“…COUSIN GRILLBY! AND MR SKELETON GUY! WAKE UP! WAKE UP! SANTA CAME!”

 

 

“…wAKE UP BROther!...GyFTMAS TIME!...”

 

 

Charrles ran to the next door as quickly as his smoking feet could carry him.

 

“…sorry GRILLBERT…” Magmus put some strong coffee on the table for Sans and a shot of whiskey on the table for Grillby as an apology.

 

Grillby and Sans rolled out of bed in their pajama pants and threw shirts on before groggily sipping some coffee and whiskey and stumbling out the door.

 

Sans could see Charrles and Magmus knock on the next door,

 

“…Ok…now their nAMES ARE PAPyrus and NILE, nOT MR. AND MRS. SKEleton…”

 

Charrles knocked once, to be greeted with Papyrus swinging the door open wearing a Santa hat and sunglasses.

 

“MERRY GYFTMAS CHARRLES AND MAGMUS! NYEHHEHHEH”

 

“….gAAAH…” Magmus was surprised.

 

“…So cool!...” Charrles hopped up and down.

 

Sans and Grillby snickered as Charrles hi-fived Papyrus while Magmus recovered his breath and ran down the hall to FUKU and Toddflame.

 

 _“HEH…MRS. SKELETON HOW SWEET…”_ Nile and Papyrus were blushing.

 

The group headed to the Gyftmas Tree.

 

******************

 

Grillby actually did enjoy the warmth of a Hotland Gyftmas. It was nice to not have to be outside in a raincoat to protect from the snow. And this year Sans was walking next to him, so it felt even warmer.

 

Sans looked at the river of lava flowing at the bottom of the hill.

 

“no ice blocks anymore…huh…well i guess jimmy is not doing that job anymore.”

 

Grillby shrugged, trying to look like he did not care about that guy. His hair turned a betraying combination of bright yellow mixed with blue.

 

Fiametta nodded,

 

“…It is even hotter now…which is nice…the only Monsters still underground are in Hotland or the Capitol…”

 

“…Oh…you are right... I suppose they… just hired an ice elemental to cool the essentials to keep the power on…”

 

 

 

 

 

Some other fire families were at the tree already, mostly Monster families with little firelings who had puled them out of bed. Charrles practically ran to the tree, while Magmus panted to keep up.

 

 

The monsters exchanges presents with each other-mostly Monsters liked to give practical Gyftmas gifts, to just a few people, not everyone in the family.

 

Afi and Fiametta got Grillby a shirt and tie and Sans a magic storing jar.

 

“…yOU CAN stORE a bIT of MAGic in it…enough for one spell at leAST…I lOVE them…”

 

Sans wondered if it worked the same way as Undyne’s shells.

 

Afi and Fiametta of course enjoyed the huge fruit basket from Papyrus and Nile as well as a bottle of wine.

 

Grillby and Sans gave Afi and Fiametta a new amazing umbrella that wrapped downward, a box of fancy surface chocolates, and…a box of dried mangoes.

 

Afi looked skeptically at the mango slices, but tried one. His flames sparked up for a second.

 

“…FiAMETTA…these boYS are spoiling ME….”

 

Fiametta tried to chide Grillby for giving them unhealthy food, but had already eaten about four of the chocolates.

 

Nile and Papyrus had gotten Sans and Grillby…matching sweatpants that were colored to look like the galaxy

 

“SO YOU TWO CAN EXERCISE IN STYLE”

 

as well as matching galaxy umbrellas

 

“BECAUSE YOU TWO GO THROUGH THOSE ALARMINGLY FAST, NYEH HEH HEH.”

 

and matching galaxy colored underwear….

 

“WAIT, IT THOUGHT WE GOT THEM THE SOCKS.”

 

_“HEH…SORRY I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE HILARIOUS.”_

“…ANYTHhing that helps with gRANDChildren is fine me me…hOO hoo…”

 

Fiametta playfully smacked Afi in the arm,

While Sans and Grillby turned funny colors.

 

Sans and Grillby had gotten Nile and Papyrus some dance CDs, leotard covers, and new pairs of ballet shoes. Nile was going to give ballet a try-although she would start at a lower level than Papyrus. The two would practice together until Nile was able to join the main team.

 

Nile loved the leotard skirt, and the two did a few practice twirls.

 

Afi and Fiametta exchanged presents- Afi had gotten Fiametta a sword to practice with (reminiscent of her ex guard days) and Fiametta had gotten Afi tickets to a surface concert.

 

“…ooH…this will be interesting…hUMan music…”

 

“…I remember you said you…used to enjoy it…”

 

“…Well…yES the chANTIng and sINGING was nICE…I liked hUMAN BARds…who are playing?...”

 

“…Well…I got one that said classic rock and metal covers…rock and metal sounded like a nice genre of music…I wonder if it inspired by rock elementals…”

 

“…Um…I am not sure that is the type of human music you will like mom…” Grillby smiled.

 

“…Oh I will just have to expand my horizons a bit…besides it will be fun to go to the surface…”

 

Grillby was looking forward to their reaction to the concert.

 

Grillby wanted to give Sans his present, it was modest, several t-shirts with amazing puns on them, including one that pictured a mustard and ketchup bottle racing each other, a pair of fuzzy unicorn slippers, which Sans immediately put on, and a new large pillow, which was made of memory foam.

 

“…Why the pillOW?... Magmus raised his breccia eyebrows suspiciously and ribbed Grillby.

 

“…Well…it is supposed to be relaxing…memory foam is like…scientifically designed by human scientists to be amazing…and um…his last one is burnt slightly…”

 

“…sO…you hog the pillows…so yOU basically bOUGHT this for yourself then!...”

 

“…it is large!...”

 

The family laughed a bit. Still, the pillow was very nice. Sans tested it out and looked so happy that Magmus and Fiametta wanted to give it a try

 

Sans handed Grillby very light box. Inside was a paper balloon with a little basket tied under it and a candle- It looked like Sans had drawn on the balloon little ropes, and added a little stick figure drawing of Sans and Grillby.

 

“…Ooh…how…artistic Sans…”

 

Grillby could not help but wonder what this represented.

 

“look in the basket.”

 

In the basket was a printed out order confirmation for a ‘Hot air Balloon ride.’

 

“…A HOT air bALLoon ride…what are you tAKINg my bROTHER on?...” Magmus burbled suspiciously, while opening the new paintbrushes Grillby had gifted him.

 

Grillby could not help but be confused, he had never heard of a balloon ride. Maybe it was a relaxing human thing where you sit on a balloon? He smiled sheepishly at Sans.

 

“so remember how you wanted to fly on the planes after paragliding?”

 

“…Well…yes…but I am **dangerous around aircraft** …” Grillby did his best impression of the gruff human guard.

 

“well, i called a hot air balloon company, and they are perfectly fine with you flying on their balloon.”

 

“…Sans…perhaps you do not weigh very much…but I doubt it will be practical to lift someone like me-”

 

Sans put a finger over Grillby’s crackling fire mouth, and brought the little candle from the paper lantern to Grillby’s hair. Grillby lit the candle and then watched as Sans set it to the ground. The paper lifted and floated into the air.

 

Grillby’s magical eyes were open wide as the little balloon careened up the hill and landed near the house.

 

“as the air trapped in the balloon heats up, it gets less dense then the surrounding air. you can think of it like a ship that is buoyant on the water, except it is a balloon and it is in the sky.”

 

“…It can lift me?...”

 

“With enough balloon and enough hot air…anything is possible…”

 

Grillby picked up Sans and twirled him around,

 

“…We are going to fly in the sky…yessss…”

 

Sans did not like it when most monsters tried to pick him up, but he could get used to this.

 

 

“heheheheh. the one bad thing is that it isn’t till your birthday. so i got you a backup present.”

 

Sans handed Grillby a kit for dying his hair called ‘Rainbow fire.” Grillby was so excited he sprinkled a bit of everything in for the day. Charrles thought it was cool- and before anyone could stop him, Charrles the char and smoke monster went from a grey smoke to a blue.

 

“…woah! you are the best cousin Grillbert…and skeleton Sans guy!...”

 

Grillby could not help but laugh as the little elemental grabbed the foam sword and pirate bandana Afi had given him, and immediately started running around with it declaring himself ‘Bluebeard’ as he shaped his smoke cloud into a beard.

 

Suss and Flameo looked disapprovingly at Grillby but the effect only lasted ten minutes so they could only be in a literal and figurative huff for a bit.

 

As the family finished unwrapping their presents Aunt JANFIRE noticed a conspicuously wrapped present with bone wrapping paper and the phrase ‘tO SaNS sKeleTon from SANTA’ written in a strange sloppy font. Almost like some monster was disguising their handwriting.

 

It was Sans’ turn to act surprised as he unwrapped a travel telescope and a hammock that could fit two monsters. Sans looked at Papyrus who was somehow magically sweating and looking shifty. There was a little note,

 

“DeAR sANS,

 

tHANK you for hElping me oUt all those yeARS delivering preSENTS. ThoUGHt yOU might like something in return.

 

 ~~NYEH~~  HOHOHO!”

 

Sans folded up the letter and ran over to Papyrus to give him a big hug,

 

“heh thanks bro!”

 

“NO, NO DID YOU NOT READ THE NOTE IT WAS FROM SANTA!”

 

“oh, well then thanks santa!”

 

Sans did not have to press it. He did not think Ppayrus would do something so nice for him this year-and to think he had not even gotten him an action figure…heh.

 

Sans and Papyrus smiled at each other and Gyftmas opening came to a close.

 

 

******************

 

JANAFIRE and Flamiel, an orange frail looking fire man, who was the only other monster in the family to have glasses, stood up as the family was talking in the living room.

 

Aunt JANAFIRE spoke up, her magical dark blue flames dancing excitingly

 

“…So…we want to talk to everyone about moving to the surface…we…apparently have the funds that we could buy a nice place to live…that would fit most of the family…the property we were looking at…has the most beautiful view of the dessert and of the surface stars…” She held Flamiel’s hand.

 

The elementals around the table looked excited as JANAFIRE spoke and showed the pictures of the mountains and starry sky,

 

“…We…like living near family though…so we want to know if anyone would be interested…in moving to the desert where the new fire church is…”

 

Flamiel smiled,

 

“…We…liked the area when we visited…”

 

Flamiel held out a photo of the sun, setting red.

 

The elementals who had not been to the dessert gasped.

 

“…I loved the sURFAce…but hOW… far…is it frOM hERE aGAIN?” Magmus seemed concerned.

 

Flamiel sighed,

 

“…It is six hours away from Ebott…so we could still visit…but not as often…”

 

The family murmured.

 

Fiametta gently touched Afi’s arm.

 

 

Monsterkind…for thousands of years had been close. So close that the longest journey from the farthest reaches of the capitol to the ruins was only a few hours if you hopped the whole way. There were problems with that-but generations of cave dwelling had suppressed most monsters from feeling caged.

 

 

Now that they could explore the whole world…or at least a larger part of it-would they cut themselves away from friends and family who stayed behind?

 

Fiametta spoke up,

 

“…Flamiel…Brother…I…”

 

Fiametta looked at Afi, who nodded.

 

“…We enjoyed our visit there…but I am concerned about the rain…”

 

JANAFIRE nodded,

 

“…We do not want to go unless most of the family wants to move…”

 

But most of the rest of the family seemed excited…

 

“…WE could live in a real dessert?...with a sky?...” Charrles hopped up and down in his chair…”

 

“…The place looked beautiful…” Emberry and Vulcy (her vulcin wife) looked happily at each other.

 

“… **And maybe if we lived in a nice warm place** …” Firebun hoped up and down happily.

 

“…I do not mind… a little rain…” Suss smiled, looking at a picture of the clouds.

 

“…Well…I think Suss and Charrles would like it…but what do you think Fia?…” Flameo looked at Fiametta. Despite his snootiness and slight dislike of Afi, he seemed to care about living near her.

 

“…I just do not think Afi and I…could come brother…”

 

The elementals turned to look at Afi and Fiametta. JANAFIRE looked sad and nodded.

 

Charrles dropped a fork, and Sparkus’ flame went low.

 

Afi smiled,

 

“…Hoo hoo hoo…you all wORry too much…back when I lived on the surface…sOMEtimes families would move a lITTLe…it is the surface way…you do not ALL HAve to stay here because of AN OLd piece of kindling like me…”

 

Most of the family looked happy, although JANAFIRE and Flamiel looked a bit concerned.

 

Fiametta spoke to Flamiel.

 

“…We are still planning to move to the surface of course…Just to Ebott…the desert is nice…But we need some place with magma nearby…and of course Grillbert has his restaurant here for a bit…so uh we…but we can be without the magma for a few days…so we will visit often!...”

 

Fiametta looked a bit torn. She obviously was going to move to be near her son, and husband, but as a monster born Underground she had always been close to family.

 

Emmaflame and Toddflame also made it known that they wanted to stay near Ebott for a bit,

 

“…We have a lot of friends in the area and Todd just got a good job…maybe once Emma is a bit older…”

 

“…wELL…yOU should STILL sEE IF YOU LIKE the LAyoUT…in CASE yOU move someday…” Furnicia looked happily at the picture of the sky.

 

 

 

JANAFIRE brought up the pictures to show everyone. She showed the family different floor plans and how they could even have several sunrooms instead of bathrooms. There would be room for Cousin Sparkus’ Nightmares, and for a library or music room. There was even room for several spare bedrooms in case any other monsterlings occurred.

 

The monsters started excitedly suggesting things, Suss offered to pay for a nice stained glass window for some fun, Firebun suggested a nice oven, Charrles suggested a lava pool-not all suggestions would work.

 

“…Fia…come give some input…” Flameo and Flamiel both tried to pull Fiametta over for any of her suggestions.

 

“…Brother…I just explained…”

 

“…For…someday…” Flameo frowned.

 

Fiametta bristled. Yes, she would probably outlive Afi. But she did not want to think about that! The nerve of her brothers sometimes.

 

 

Afi patted Fiametta’s shoulder though.

 

“…FiA…FiA…let us have some fun…did you not always say you wanted a room you cOULD train in?...”

 

Despite his Uncle’s rudeness, Grillby could not help but smile as Afi and Fiametta both ended up joining in. The pair seemed to be enjoying the idea o designing a surface house, with Afi even suggested a small orchard, which the family agreed would be fun.

 

******

Sans and Grillby stayed for a few more days, playing games, getting fed home-cooked meals, and helping Magmus frame some of the monument valley paintings he had done. Afi, Grillby, Sans, and Papyrus went for a fun stroll that turned into an all day escapade when Afi decided he wanted to see if anywhere Underground was selling flowers for Fiametta and Nile. The adventure involved the ferry, an angry Dice-monster, puzzle solving, and burnt begonias, but they ended up finding some nice roses in the end.

 

Magmus promised to visit the bar more often and Fiametta let Grillby know she would be visiting around the New Year.

 

 

Grillby, Papyrus, Sans, and Nile thanked the elemental family for their hospitality and short cutted back home for a few days before their trip with Mettaton, Undyne, and Alphys.


	57. In which Grillby learns about toothpaste

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The monsters enjoy a lazy morning and a ride into the mountains.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, sorry for the saucy beginning, but if they are gonna have monsterlings anytime soon, they need to get better at some *things*. 
> 
> Sorry for the long pause this month (2 chapters a month is OK, but not what I would like to be out-putting). On the bright side, I might be able to graduate at the end of the year/ my committee ripped my project to shreds but think I can do it.
> 
> Still writing tonight, and aiming for another update.

Grillby and Sans were nearing the end of a very sexy morning. Sans could feel the flames of fire around his back, and leaned in, giving Grillby a skeletal kiss as the flame monster started to lose his human shape.

 

“…I…L0oe…you…S0oo…”

 

“mhhm i love you too, grillbz.”

 

Grillby was done for, his torso turned into single large jet of fire and he rushed to move his glasses to the table,

 

“grillby, i love how hot you are right now, come closer, babe.”

 

Sans could feel Grillby’s flames lick him up, their souls came close, and the little pulses of light started to pulse back and forth.

 

The soul beats intensified…they were getting better at this. Sans could feel his bones vibrate with every beat.

 

“…Oo00h…Sans…Can you do that thing?...”

 

Sans rolled on top of Grillby and then used his gravity magic to lift them both upwards.

 

“…Heheh…y0ur magic feels…is so0o nice…”

 

Sans and Grillby were ready…their soul beat faster and faster.

 

“oh grillby, hold me.”

 

Sans felt his entire body vibrate with his now white hot soul-he moaned in happiness. It was so nice and warm.

 

The last pulse of light hit Grillby, and he felt that bizarre and beautiful cool sensation. Both were in bliss…but Grillby was holding back one little bit,

 

“it’s ok grillby, go for it.”

 

The elemental pulled Sans close and…

 

 

OH ASGORE THAT WAS TOO HOT.

 

“ouch ouch ouch. stop!” Sans rolled away from Grillby.

 

****

 

Grillby threw on pants and ran into the bathroom next to Papyrus’ room and shot open the medicine cabinet. The squinting elemental moved his face close to the medicine…ooh too close…the toothpaste he held up started to melt.

 

AHH his hand was still just a tongue of fire…ahhh…

 

Ok, OK, back up Grillby. Grillby took a split second to collect himself and his arm.

 

 

Uh, uh. bandages-no, er maybe yes, magical anti-nausea pills-no, more toothpaste-no, hair growth formula-no, Mr. Calcium’s vitamins-no, even more toothpaste-no, aha!

 

Grillby charged down the hallway with bone healing salve and bandages. His left arm was not even formed.

 

Nile, who was in the hallway with a suitcase packed tried her best not to stare at the rushing elemental as he slammed the door to Sans’ room closed.

 

*****

 

“…Sans I am so sorry…”

 

“it is ok grillby i’m fine, sorry for the shouting.”

 

Grillby was too concerned to mention that Sans’ voice really did not shout.

 

“…how is your HP?...”

 

“it is fine babe.” Sans rolled over and looked away from Grillby.

 

Grillby decided to check.

 

“hey. ok. ok. three out of seven.”

 

“…FOUR points!.... Sans…I am horrible…also I thought it was at eight?...”

 

“it is fine, and like the doctor said once the HP is on a fluctuator it will, uh, fluctuate.”

 

“…Well…I am going to help fluctuate it back up…” Grillby grabbed some Gyftmas cookies shaped like little meteors and started pushing them to Sans.

 

“hey! mrgm. **munch** honestly **munch** it is doing pretty well. doc only thought it would be at six by now at the highest **munch** so we are pretty close to the ten hp range.”

 

Grillby sighed as Sans HP went back to near seven. A burn would probably dribble at the HP all day if untreated, though,

 

“…He said if you were really happy it would be around twenty….also can we talk about the ridiculous amount of toothpaste in that cabinet?...”

 

“well, i mean i am really happy with you, but well i mean there is some stress at work and i am worried about paps and also you know sometimes it is nice to switch the toothpaste up for different flavors. they have a bunch up here on the surface! you know spear mint is totally different from cool mint. and i really like zesty orange, while bubblegum is just pap’s fav-”

 

Sans winced as he brushed the hurt bone,

 

Grillby nuzzled into Sans apologetically.

 

“well, i am a little toasted.”

 

“…Let me get that for you?...”

 

Grillby’s flames sizzled and burned up some of the medicine as he put it on his finger.

 

“…Ahh…s0rry…I am panicking a bit…”

 

Grillby stuck his finger back in the medicine and then had to flail it off his own finger as the cool gel dampened his flames causing him to lose 1 HP.

 

“grillby, do not hurt yourself. i got it.” Sans smiled and leaned into Grillby giving him a kiss and his finger and snatching the ointment.

 

 

Grillby just tried not panicking in Sans’ general direction as the skeleton applied the ointment to his pelvis. Sans frowned as the ointment stung a bit before causing a weird numbing sensation.

 

“…I am so, so sorry…”

 

“grillbabe-it barely hurts. and i really do not mind.”

 

“…But you are wincing…”

 

Sans tried to stop wincing, and smiled,

 

“well, ok, i will be honest it is a _pain in the rear_.”

 

“…Sans!...”

 

“you could say i was fibbing a bit-or that my pants were on fire.”

 

Grillby angrily suppressed a snicker while Sans went on,

 

“ _butt_ I think you are worrying too much. and it was a good time until the _end_ there.”

 

“…Heh…well I still feel a little bad about it…maybe I can make it up to you at the cabin?...”

 

Grillby leaned on the bed into his arm in a sexy pose and then proceeded to lose balance.

 

Sans caught him with gravity magic and rested the elemental next to him.

 

“you do not have to make up anything!”

 

“…Nothing?...”

 

Sans was pretty sure Grillby was trying to wink at him with his fire around where his eyes would be.

 

 

“er, but i don’t think i would say no to some cozy cabin cuddling.”

 

Grillby proceeded to wiggle his flames near his flame eyebrows,

 

“wait. babe. you have eyebrows?”

 

Grillby looked at Sans with a huge jack-o-lantern grin.

 

“i mean, dang. they are so great. how could I have never noticed before?”

 

Sans proceeded to poke the fire that was slightly different from the rest of the fire, in that its flames were curved in directions.

 

“…I mean…Like I explained before a few of my features are not super well defined, and…I sometimes have to put some effort into forming them…besides they are hard to notice…”

 

Sans was still staring awestruck at Grillby’s eyebrows,

 

“…But my mother has distinct eyes and eyebrows, so I suppose… I at least have those…”

 

Grillby would have liked to have his mother’s clear eyes, but he supposed he would have to settle for barely visible eyebrows. At least he didn’t have the chunks of breccia over his eyebrows like Magmus…

 

“monster you are so gorgeous. can I play with your hair?”

 

Before even waiting for an answer, Sans reached into his jacket pocket and got out his comb.

 

“…Anytime…” Grillby loved when Sans did his hair and how the small skeleton had a comb. Papyrus and Sans were both in their twenties and probably knew they would never need it, but Grillby thought it was adorable. He had even caught Sans pretending to comb his hair nonexistent hair once. Maybe if the skeleton got sick of science he could become a hair stylist?

 

Grillby smiled as the skeleton attempted to comb his flame hair into a ponytail again.

 

Sans then reached towards his face,

 

“…SANS…you do not comb eyebrows…that is…terrifying.”

 

Never mind about the hair stylist idea.

 

Sans stared at Grillby for a second.

 

“oh uh. yeah. yeah. i uh knew-I uh just-ok, honestly i had no idea.” Sans was a bit embarrassed but Grillby smiled.

 

“eh, besides you look great already, no need to comb the eyebrows.”

 

“…Heh…Sans…you are sweet…it is ok to not know a lot about hair…I mean…I am awful with non-fire biology…And mine is like fire hair anyway…but yeah…only comb hair on the head…”

 

“you mean the top of the head.”

 

“…Well…yeah…but you don’t want to comb hair in other places either.”

 

Sans looked at Grillby like he was crazy.

 

“what do you mean other places?”

 

“…Well…I have hair in places humans noticeably do…we went to the beach…I am sure you have an idea…”

 

“wait. wait. so you have flame hair on your chest?”

 

Sans moved his head to Grillby’s chest and tried to see if he could notice little bits of flames that were different.

 

“oh my asgore. you have a patch of flame hair on your chest. how did i never notice this before?”

 

“…Heh…it’s alright… fire hair is so hard to see to non-elementals ….and I do not have a lot, just small patches…which is nice cause I don’t like having it under my arms honestly, since I am not sure how to trim fire hair…”

 

“under your arms! what the hey! How come you get hair under your arms and us skeleton’s don’t even get a mustache?”

 

Grillby tried to imagine Sans with a mustache. He was secretly happy Sans could not grow hair.

 

“babe. our children are gonna be beautiful.”

 

“…What if they only get the armpit hair?...”

 

“still beautiful, besides you can’t even notice that on you!”

 

“…What if they are hairless skeletons, except with flaming armpit hair?”

 

Sans cracked up,

 

“ok, but they would be our little abominations! and i’ll still love them, wouldn’t you?”

 

“…Well, if you put it that way…maybe if their hair was at least a cool color?”

 

Grillby and Sans let out a peel of laughter imagining their still loved-but unusual child.

 

“any other magical fire hair i should know about for the sake of our future monsterlings?”

 

Grillby smiled.

 

“…Well…like I said, it is not super defined but none of me really is…”

 

“wait a minute. you mean?”

 

Grillby wiggled a certain clothing article off, and Sans face palmed while cursing Asgore.”

 

“and the gods can’t give me a mustache! grillbabe. i am totally jealous. you look incredibly sexy. i love you. you are blessed.”

 

Sans kissed Grillby all over.

 

Grillby attempted to pose again in a way that showed off his body, and immediately lost balance a second time.

 

Sans did not have to catch him this time, as the elemental flopped into the pillow instead of the floor.

 

 

“…Asgore…this is what happens when I do not wear glasses…”

 

“here, you look cute with them anyway, why did you take them off?”

 

“…When I go all fiery they fall away…”

  

 

Sans pulled Grillby in for a hug. The morning was getting late, and they still needed to pack for the trip, but Grillby was warm, Sans was soothing and nothing could ruin this moment. The two smiled at their empty unpacked suitcases, and snuggled.

 

 

*********************************

 

***CRASH***

 

“…Um, is that Nile an Papyrus?...”

 

“probably yes.”

 

“…Should we help them?...”

 

Sans waited a few seconds and after hearing Papyrus’ voice faintly and deciding that his brother was alive, the small skeleton shook his head.

 

“maybe…in like ten minutes.”

 

Grillby and Sans snuggled back together for a little bit.

 

************************

 

 

 ***CRASH** *

 

Papyrus and Nile knocked over the Gyftmas tree, lights and all when the pair tripped over the cord after rushing down the stairs with their suitcases.

 

 _“OH NO PY, I KNOCKED THE TREE OVER!”_  


“OH NO NILE, IT WAS ALL ME, I HAVE FOURTEEN LEFT TARSALS.”

 

The pair scrambled to right the tree and check that none of the ornaments were broken. Two glass ones were, and somehow so was Sans’…the tiny deer/pom pom golem thing that Sans had made.

_“OH NO! NOT YOUR BROTHER’S DEER, HE WORKED SO VERY HARD ON THAT.”_

“REALLY IT IS A CULMINATION OF ALL OF HIS ARTISTIC SKILL.”

 

 

The sad deer abomination actually looked better with some of the extra popsicle stick bits broken off and the pipe cleaner antlers simplified but Nile immediately found some craft glue and carefully re-attached the broken/crumpled bits while Papyrus vacuumed.

 

_“UM…WERE THE ANTLERS STRAIGHT UP AND DOWN?”_

“NO, THEY WERE MORE UH, TILTED…ARTISTICALLY. AND THERE WERE A FEW POM POMS HERE.”

 

Papyrus tilted the antlers to match Sans’ haphazard placement, re-added the missing pom poms, and let out a sigh of relief as they placed it on the table to dry.

 

Nile straightened the tree one last time and hugged Papyrus.

 

As she hugged him she tripped again on a spare strand of light that had been coiled next to a table.

 

Papyrus sighed. It had been super fun, but it was a bit precarious to walk around without knocking into lighting strands. It had been fun for the party, but was not the model of safety.

 

 

And he-was a model citizen when it came to safety!

 

They would have to un decorate the house a bit…besides Grillby was starting to drool at all the dried out wreaths and well…and it technically was a fire hazard having so many lights. They were lucky Catsup was with Red…maybe he would just stick to ten strands next year?

 

Realizing they had an hour to kill, Papyrus and Nile took down some of the excessive lighting and packed the ornaments off of the tree. Papyrus left one strand of lights on the bannister and figured Grillby would be able to take care of the wreaths.

 

It still looked festive, the tree was still up and there was a strand of lights, but now Sans would hopefully worry less about the house combusting while they were with Mettaton.

 

***********************************************

 

Grillby and Sans rushed down the stairs, with their hastily packed suitcases to find Papyrus and Nile chatting with Alphys, Undyne, Bunny, and Ugly with the monsterlings running around the living room. The monsterlings seemed to be all starting to talk.

 

Nariko was biting Papyrus and shouting,

 

“piiiiiiir!”

 

“NO, IT IS PAPYRUS! BUT CLOSE NARIKO!”

 

“II-t is so wonderful. T-They are trying to make words. I wonder who they will say first?” Alphys hugged Undyne.

 

“Piiiiiiiry loo!”

 

Nariko opened her claws and a tiny yellow spear shot out onto the floor and into the ground. Nariko then tried to pull it out to show Papyrus, but it was stuck.

 

“waaaaah!”

 

The little blue and red spiked t-rex monster scampered over to Alphys and nuzzled into her, crying.

 

“Th-there there Nariko, it is ok, you can just re summon the spear.”

 

Alphys was happy that Nariko was not super proficient with the spear yet. Why couldn’t her daughter summon cotton balls or something less dangerous?”

 

The other monsterlings were also running around.

 

Rinan was hopping up and down with Bunny.

 

“anFuz!”

 

“Hello again Rinan! Want me to Bunnysit again?”

 

Undyne and Alphys had been appreciative of Bunny coming over to help lately. Between Bunny and Ugly coming over, Story time with Nile and Papyrus, and the near weekly brunch at Grillby’s the monsterlings were getting to know their soul parents.

 

Grillby smiled at Damini who rushed into him and hugged his leg.

 

“Fiiiiiiiiii”

 

 

Damini ran around Grillby,

 

“Fiii! Fii!”

 

“…Aww…Is she trying to say fire?...”

 

Grillby was so happy watching the little monsterling point at him and she slithered around on her tail.

 

Sans was smiling with little stars in his eyes. Oh man, what if they had kids someday and they called Grillby fire? Or would they call him dad first? Oh dang, what if they were both in the room? They would both be dad? Did Sans really want to be called dad? But would it be weird if they just called him Sans? Ahhhh!

 

Undyne nodded,

 

“We think so. I am ‘bu’ and Alphys is “Yaaam” but sometimes Alphys is “Fu”.”

 

“oh, so undyne is ‘blue’? but then what is alphs?” Sans scratched his head.

 

“Well, they are closer with some than others. Clearly they are trying to call Grillby Fire, and they keep calling Carvata “jahhhh” for jaws, which she loves, but poor Bunny keeps getting ‘anfu’ whatever that means.”

 

Sans was excited to see what the monsterlings might call him…but he and Ugly just did not seem to have anything.

 

Nile on the other hand now had all three monsterling surrounding her,

 

“Stormy! Stormy!”

 

_“AHH HOW CUTE! AM I STORMY?”_

Papyrus scratched his head…

 

Nile sat on the couch and read a book about counting and colors to the monsterlings.

 

_“THIS IS A NEW BOOK ONE OF MY FAVORITE AUTHORS WROTE NOW THAT WE ARE ON THE SURFACE!”_

 

Sans couldn’t help but listen to the silly kids story while they waited for Frisk.

 

***************

_“FIRST LET’S COUNT TO ONE! THIS ONE WHITE DRAKE MONSTER IS FLYING PAST THE SUN!”_

A cartoon snowdrake-like monster bird was shown flying in the air. Sans smiled.

_“AND NOW WE COUNT TO TWO, HERE WE SEE TWO BLUE CHUS. LITTLE JELLY MONSTER GUYS! CAN REFORM IN A NATURAL DISGUISE!”_

The jelly blob monsters were shown to reform to look like shrubs. Was their proper name chus? Sans had always figured it was blob or slime?

 

_“THREE BROWN DOG MONSTERS COME TODAY, AND THEY JUST REALLY WANT TO PLAY!”_

_“FOUR PINK GHOST MONSTERS ARE HERE TO FARM! BUY THEIR SNAILS AND CARROTS, THEY MEAN NO HARM!”_

Was that a product placement?

 

_“NOW WE COUNT UP TO FIVE! PARSNIK HAS FIVE NUTRITIOUS SNAKES ON HER HEAD! EACH SNAKE IS RED!”_

_“NOW WE MEET NUMBER SIX! LOOK AT THE GOLD SPELL FROM THE MADJICK!”_

The madjick in the picture was forming a number seven with their magic. Sans had never seen anyone of them do anything so sensible, but he figured it was possible.

_“OOH, IT IS MY FAVORITE PAGE NOW…SEVEN GREEN FISH MONSTERS COME UP FROM A RIVER SWIM, LISTEN TO HOW WELL THEY SING!”_

 

The little monsterlings hopped up and down excitedly and each tried to sing.

 

***

Nile read the entire book, which for some reason went to thirty.

 

_“TWENTY NINE LIGHT-GREY MUMMIES DANCE AT A BALL, THEIR FANCY MASKS HIDE THEM ALL.”_

“MY! MY!” Rinan shouted happily.

_“OH WELL MAYBE I CAN MAKE YOU A MUMMY MASK…SOMEDAY NARIKO!”_

Nile smiled. Papyrus hugged Nile.

 

_“AND FINALLY, THIRTY CYAN AIR ELEMENTALS ARE READY FOR BED, MAKING PILLOW CLOUDS FOR A BED.”_

 

“YAA! STORMY!”

 

As the monsterlings ran back to Alphys and Undyne Papyrus teased Nile,

 

“NILE MAYBE STORMY MEANS THEY THINK YOU ARE AN AIR ELEMENTAL?”

 

_“OOH THAT WOULD BE FUNNY!”_

“…Well…what if they are just trying to say story?...”

 

Papyrus looked at Grillby incredulously,

 

“WELL, I MEAN GRILLBY THAT IS A VERY CREATIVE IDEA, BUT IT SEEMS FAR-FETCHED.”

 

******************

 

Finally, Frisk and J.T. pulled up with Doggo and Endogeny.

 

“It was my fault, WOOF! I couldn’t find my snow boots! Luckily they were under the couch!” Doggo let himself, Jasmine, and Endogeny out of the trunk.

 

“Why are you riding in the trunk?” Undyne sighed.

 

“WOOF BARK!”

 

“Well, woof, as Endogeny just said, it is more fun! J.T. offered us all seats, but Endogeny wanted to stretch out, and I gotta say, the way the air filters into the back trunk though the windows is amazing!”

 

Frisk said they were upset J.T. didn’t let them ride in the trunk.

 

“It is not very safe kiddo! And there are laws against human kids riding in the back like that, err there are now at least. When I was a kid I had to ride back there once and it is fun at first, but then you get carsick!”

 

Dogo looked a bit embarrassed,

 

“Frisk, look, WOOF, me and Endogeny will buckle up in the backseat with you during the next part of the ride, BARK! Especially since it is more than a few blocks.”

 

Endogeny woofed in agreement and then tackled J.T. and play wrestled.

 

“Endog, you are crazy energetic!”

 

“BARK WOOF!”

 

“Woah, calm down sis!”

 

One of the Endogeny paws calmed for a second while the rest kept wrestling J.T.

 

Alphys looked away for a second.

 

Doggo was wearing four red matching booties with little grips over his paws. His seeing eye dog Jasmine and Endogeny were also wearing snow booties, although Jasmine’s were pink and Endogeny’s were two sets of blue ones and a yellow set for their many paws.

 

While Doggo was also wearing a coat and pants, Endogeny and Jasmine both were the types of dogs to have a thick coat of fur to protect them.

 

“BARK! Jasmine here seems excited when I told her there would be snow. The people I got her from say she is a Saint Bernard, YAP! Which used to rescue humans lost in the snow!”

 

 

Sans was missing snow himself, there had been a few attempts at snow from the weather system, but nothing spectacular. The mountains on the other hand should have plenty.

 

“WELL! You punks ready to get going, the drive is a few hours and we want to meet Mettaton for lunch!”

 

The groups arranged into three cars:

 

Alphys, Undyne, and the monsterlings sat in the mom-mobile.

 

J.T., Frisk, Doggo, Endogeny, Sans, and Jasmine sat in the black government vehicle.

 

 

And, because Grillby admitted he was uncomfortable driving in the snow on the mountains, Papyrus, Nile, Bunny, Ugly, and Grillby rode together. Sans had wanted to ride with them, but there wasn’t room and Frisk wanted to talk to Sans about school, so Grillby and Sans parted ways for a bit. Grillby was a bit sad to ride without Sans, but it was just for a few hours anyway.

 

 

*****

 

Papyrus’s convertible was honestly probably not the best choice for a mountain drive. The skeleton got uncharacteristically quiet as the car wound in long semi-circles back and forth amidst the rising mountain slope.

 

The skeleton, who had been driving in the left lane for the majority of the trip had long since moved to the right lane, behind Undyne’s van. J.T. stayed left, but slowed down a bit so the monsters would not fall behind.

 

 _“WOW THIS IS SO SCENIC!”_ Nile was taking pictures with her phone of the landscape, it was a bit foggy, and the sun was peaking out from behind the clouds illuminating the mountains.

“OH YES, SCENIC.”

 

“Oh, Nile, honey, we are going to have so much fun skiing in all that snow on the peaks.”

 

“SNOW?”

 

_“OH I AM SO EXCITED, I HAVE NOT ACTUALLY EVER GOTTEN TO DO ANYTHING WITH SNOW, MY PARENTS NEVER LET ME GO TO SNOWDIN! I AM GOING TO BE AWFUL AT SKIING.”_

“Yah know my family thought it was crazy for a fish like me to move someplace so cold-but you are gonna love it! And, honestly, I don think any monster here has skiing practice, the most you could do on those tiny hills is sled, amirite paps?”

 

 

And then suddenly the road sloped downward. And then there was snow on the side of the road. And then the road sloped upwards again.

 

 

“paps?”

 

And then there was snow on the road. And then it was snowing.

 

 

“OH, NYEH HEHHEH, YES, SORRY I NEED TO CONCENTRATE THE ROAD IS A BIT TREACHEROUS.”

 

_“OH BUT YOU ARE USED TO THE SNOW RIGHT?”_

“WELL, NOT DRIVING IN IT…”

 

 

Papyrus hurriedly switched the wipers on and turned on the air to prevent fog as the driving manual had instructed. The windshield had started fog up due to the heat in the car, vs. the outside cold. The skeleton swerved for a split-second as he couldn’t see-

 

_“AHH!”_

 

“GAAAH!”

 

“OH FUCK!”

 

“…H0lo…F0oO…”

 

-and Papyrus hurriedly used his scarf to wipe a space in the window while the car adjusted.

 

 

“SORRY EVERYONE, IT IS FINE, I DID NOT REALIZE THAT THERE WOULD BE FOG CAUSED FROM THE TEMPERATURE DIFFERNCE, AND I THOUGHT THE FAN WOULD WORK FASTER. NYEH HEH. REALLY THOUGH, SORRY! SMOOTH SAILING FROM HERE, THOUGH, I PROMISE!”

 

“…Oh Sorry Papyrus…”

 

“An I’ll try and be less distracting!” Ugly smiled at the skeleton.

 

_“ME TOO!”_

Papyrus sighed with relief, and just concentrated on the road.

 

***

 

Sans was thus thankfully oblivious to Papyrus’ stress levels. The skeleton started talking to Frisk about school with Doggo. Apparently Frisk was good at math and science, but was struggling a bit with English/ Literature this semester.

 

“I just read too slow.”

 

“well, that’s ok, frisk. everymonster has at least one subject that gives them some trouble. to be honest, i did not like reading until i found books that i liked the stories of. tell me, what are you reading at school?”

 

Frisk explained that they were reading a lot of historical fiction, so that the monsters could learn about humans, or books about humans going to school and facing problems like bullying, or books about human kids going to dances.

 

“Woof, oh, I see. You like fantasy books? Or science fiction stuff maybe?”

 

Frisk shook their head yes and then no.

 

“Too weird to read now.”

 

Frisk explained that they used to like those kinds of book, but most of them involved fighting monsters so it was kind of sad to read those now.

 

Sans nodded that was understandable,

 

“well, ya know there are more than just three genres kiddo, it is actually pretty exciting you get to figure out what you like-maybe mystery or drama, or even poetry?”

 

Frisk stuck their tongue out at poetry.

 

“look, you never know until you try! besides aren’t you the human that tried to befriend monsters, if anyone can try i know it is you!”

 

Frisk stopped sticking their tongue out but smiled.

 

 

The group admired the snow-not just falling from cracks in the cave above, but actually coming from the white sky.

 

“wow seeing the snow, covering a whole landscape that is larger than the underground…all in a blanket of white. it makes me feel so small…it is so peaceful.”

 

Sans leaned back looking at the landscape and ready to sleep.

 

The skeleton sighed and Doggo put his paw to the window, enjoying the cold touch through the doggy mittens.

 

Dogo loved the snow and the rain. The usually almost invisible world was filled with motion. It was the opposite of feeling quiet.

 

“Woof, but all the little snowflakes tumbling down…in a dizzy, BARK! It makes me feel so alive. I cannot wait to go outside and chase them.”

 

***************

 

Undyne and Alphys were doing their best to calm the kids down at the sight of snow.

 

Nariko kept licking the window with her tongue and going “brrr!”, Damini was using her tail to draw pictures in the window with the window fog, and Rinan, who was currently the most vocally adept was shouting about the snow.

 

“SNIW! SNAH!”

 

“Oh Rinan do you want t-to say snow? S-SNOW!”

 

Alphys tried her best to say it while pointing.

 

“SNE! SNE! Yaaam! Sne!”

 

As Alphys paid too much attention to Rinan Nariko suddenly decided to throw one of her spears against the window.

 

Undyne gasped, but continued to drive, thankfully this wasn’t the first time Nariko had pulled this stunt.

 

“NO! NO spear in car Nariko.” Alphys did her best to attempt to scold Nariko, who next also started to yell for Alphys,

 

“Yaaaam! Yaaam loo!”

 

And not to be left out Damini started quietly mumbling,

 

“yaaam.”

 

“Calm down, everyone, how about story time?”

 

Attention was diverted to Alphys.

 

“But you h-have to be quiet” Alphys did the shushing motion with a claw over her beak. The monsterling might not have understood every word, but they knew that meant hush.

 

After about half an hour of Alphys reading the extended edition of Fluffy Bunny goes to school (Thanks Papyrus) the little tykes took a nap.

 

“T-the joys of monsterlings?” Alphys whispered to Undyne, before wiping some sweat from her forehead.

 

“Don’t worry yam, it’s better with you.”

 

“No p-problem Bu.”

 

The two laughed and proceeded to wake up the kids again.


	58. MTT's magical snow adventure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group finally meets Mettaton, and are ready for some winter fun!

“YAAM! LOO! Duuur!”

 

Alphys looked at Damini as she slapped the window with her tail after she had sucked on it. The window was now covered in kiddie drool in a tail shape.

 

“Ooh! Damini, not the window!”

 

Alphys sighed and reached behind her to wipe the window with a disinfectant wipe.

 

“Duur! Duur!”

 

Alphys looked out the clean window to see a small herd of deer resting under a rock outcropping in the snow.

 

“Ooh s-sweetie! You see the deer! You are trying to say deer? Oh! That is right! Deer!”

 

 

*************************

 

_“AHH GYFTTROTS!”_

Team Papyrus’ car braced themselves as the red corvette fishtailed after a sudden turn to avoid hitting several deer that had wandered onto the road after Undyne had passed. The skeleton had not been speeding, but the road was extremely slippery.

 

 

_“AAH!”_

“Holy Shit!”

 

“EEEK!”

 

“…o0oo!...”

 

The deer ran back to their shelter but the car was turning rapidly!

 

Thankfully Papyrus had read the driver’s manual thoroughly and knew that if the car’s rear moved one way, to steer in the same direction.

 

He moved the wheel left, and for a second they were in the wrong lane as the car swerved!

 

_“OOHH NOO!”_

“GAAH!”

 

“EEEE!”

 

“…A0000!...”

 

…but then swayed back slightly in the other direct due to overcorrection with the steering… and Papyrus moved the wheel the other way to match but more gently…

 

The car wiggled back and forth slightly

 

_“GA-OK!”_

“Ooh!”

 

“heh”

 

“….”

 

and then normalized with a last halfhearted sway.

 

Papyrus sighed with relief and Ugly wooed with Joy.

 

“WOOHOO! That is what I call driving Paps!”

 

Bunny was holding her ears, and Grillby’s flames had warmed the car to the point where if it was not snowing outside Papyrus would have assumed it was summer. Nile’s bones (the ones that did not have as much skin) were rattling something horrible.

 

“I AM SO SORRY! I KNEW THERE MIGHT BE SNOW, BUT I HAD NO IDEA IT WOULD BE THIS DANGEROUS! THESE ROADS HAVE NOT BEEN CLEARED AT ALL. WE ARE GOING TO HAVE TO SLOW DOWN A BIT FOR THE LAST TWENTY MINUTES, OK?”

 

 

_“IT IS FINE PY! GOOD JOB AVOIDING THOSE GYF-I MEAN DEER.”_

“Yeah, I would have cried if we hit the little guys. Thanks Paps!” Bunny sighed and rested her head on the window.

 

“…I am so relieved we did not crash…you recovered well…I do not think I would have been able to save that…”

 

Every monster nodded their heads-it wasn’t Papyrus’ fault that there was so much snow on the road, and the monster was doing well for his first time driving in it.

 

Still, it was perhaps not the best weather for a corvette. Papyrus slowed the car and watched, as the Undyne’s was lost into the fog and the mountain curved upwards.

 

 

***

 

Nile’s GPS announced they had arrived at what was not even the peak of a terrifyingly tall and snowy mountain. The monster cars pulled into a cleared driveway and parking area that was a little distance away from some beautiful green snow peaked conifers and what looked like a wooden cabin. Papyrus realized the others must have also slowed down a little, because they were still in their cars as he pulled up. As the monsters opened their car doors (and in Papyrus’ case kissed the ground in relief), a large figure glided towards them stylishly. The world faded into black and grids as Mettaton entered the picture and started a HUD!

 

**Duh dah dee dee duh dah duh dee dee**

**Mettaton did a twirl and then leapt from the door to the cars in several impressive jumps.**

 

**Hello Darling Alphys! Undyne! Kids!**

 

***Duh dah dee dee duh dah duh dee dee**

 

**Mettaton turned sideways their hair falling in front of their perfect eyes, their legs moving together in a quarter turn.**

Nile and Papyrus turned to look at Mettaton and the battle music started to play even louder. After the terrifying car ride, this was quite a sudden change of emotions.

**The music picked up *naaaaaaaaaahhh naah nah nah nan a-nu unst unst nu unst unst unst naaah unst**

Both necrotics had beads of sweat as Mettaton leapt over a chair to them to shake Undyne and Alphys hands.

**OH, Alphys, I just love the new double elastic bend you added to my body!**

**Whooh Whoo Whoo whooo whoo**

**Do do do do dah do do do dah DO**

**Mettaton leaned backwards while swiveling and threw confetti into the air with the lean to demonstrate.**

**Mettaton next crouched down as waved at the monsterlings.**

**OOH hello darlings!**

***Da ne woah dah dah dah nA Da ne woah da ne no de de de DE DEE De Dooh**

 

Nariko, Damini, and Rinan giggled happily as Mettaton handed them each a MTT Brand plush MTT doll, which were shaped like Mettaton neo and pink (even in the HUD).

 

**AND each one has MY FACE! So no more sleepless nights with monsterlings crying for Alphys or Undyne!**

Undyne snickered a bit, but contained herself.

 

The kids loved them and each smiled at Mettaton and started to dance to the battle theme with their dollies.

**Mettaton walked up to Frisk.**

**Oh and of course I have one for Frisky dearest!**

Mettaton handed Frisk a Doll, which Frisk hugged politely.

**And Frisk, you have a security guard now? Oh ho! Well you are an ambassador! What is your name, handsome?**

J.T. smiled at Mettaton and shook their hand politely introducing himself, and did not even flinch when Mettaton gave his hand a ***chilly** robot kiss. (Mettaton _was_ a metal robot in the snow). Papyrus and Nile’s eyes went wide as J.T. got a kiss, while Alphys shook her head.

 

**Oh J.T. huh! What a pleasure. You have to tell me all about what it is like to work for Queen Toriel! And do tell me which MTT brands you and your human friends enjoy the most! Well- we can chat as we are skiing down the slopes!**

Frisk looked nervous once the skis were mentioned. Mettaton noticed and gave Frisk some encouragement as their music continued to blare.

**Bah bah bah DEE ba-unst unst-Bah bah bah DEE UN UN UN**

**Oh Frisky, it is a bit tricky at first, but I think of it as a dance-and we all know you are good at dancing!**

The two did a high leg kick and a twirl together. Frisk then showed off a pirouette.

**Ahh, haha, it looks like your dancing skills are improving! Has some monster been teaching you?**

Frisk motioned to Papyrus, who was somehow still sweating despite the cold and lack of dangerous driving maneuvers.

**The music sure was loud.**

**De UN de UN be bebbe nah**

**Mettaton walked up to Papyrus and Nile.**

**Oh Papyrus! You are good friend with Undyne, right? I remember you from the Royal blockade of the barrier. _Well_ I mean we were all there right? But you were right up there with Frisky!   **

**Mettaton was moving in close to Papyrus, maybe a little too close**

**Dah NUH oh dah nah oh – de de de de nah nan a dah HUH oh dah nah oh-**

“IT IS SO WONDERFUL TO MEET YOU METTATON, NILE AND I ARE SUCH BIG FANS OF YOUR FANTASTIC CHOREOGRAPY! AND YOUR TALENTED SINGING! AND YOUR SHOWMANSHIP! REALLY ALL YOUR TALENTS!”

 

Mettaton finally seemed to notice Nile, who was honestly hard to miss being slightly taller than Papyrus.

 

*Ahh

 

**Mettaton backed away slightly and smiled, but continued to be genuinely polite.**

**Oh my goodness, Nile, it is nice to meet you, too. I love your matching ski outfits, perhaps I can lend you some matching black MTT snow pants to go with?**

Any monster could have figured out that Nile and Papyrus were dating with their matching ski jackets which had been bedazzled in pink rhinestones to spell out ‘2 cool’ for Papyrus and a bedazzled white snowflake for Nile.

_“WOW, YOU ARE FABULOUS IN PERSON, TOO!”_

Mettaton smiled as Papyrus and Nile’s faces beamed. Although the robot looked a bit disappointed as he looked at Papyrus. Oh well.

 

**Oh why thank you darling, being gracious is of course, a very important part of being a famous actor, dancer, and socialite!**

 

 

**Ba BAH ba de-bah bah bah bah da deee, dee dee dee dEE! Dee dee dee dee!**

Mettaton turned and introduced themselves to Bunny, Ugly, Doggo, Endogeny, Grillby, and Sans.

**It is such a pleasure to meet everyone! I am so thankful that you were all able to help dear Alphys and Undyne with that situation. Oh, I am so excited to meet you all and have some fun! But we have been outside in the cold too long? Let’s get your things inside- I think a lot of you know Blooky-I mean Napstablook, but you might not know my other cousins-or uh second cousins? First cousins once removed? Ahahaha~Ghost family trees are sooo tedious darlings! I always mix it up!**

********************************************************

**Mettaton helped by picking up Alphys and her bag together and sweeping them into the cozy log cabin.**

On the way in Sans noticed a large rack with their own personal set of skiis, inflatable donuts, and sleds. There also appeared to be a huge hill behind the cabin, and even a little ski lift that seemed to connect the cabin to a higher part of the mountain.

 

The cabin itself was made of beautiful pine logs stacked on top of each other. Sans elbowed Grillby, who was looking at the home happily, and a bit hungrily.

**They musically entered the wooden pine door**

**Oh de de de-de da de DUH!**

 

The cabin was beautiful and exquisitely decorated with candles, big cozy couches with (Faux) Fur draped over them, elegant paintings of woodland life, and lush warm carpeting! A large fireplace was in the middle with a sitting room, and there was also a large dining table and a kitchen. Bedrooms and bathrooms were to the left and right past the kitchen.

In the kitchen a small feint green ghost was attempting to bake what smelled like cookies. And on the couch Napstablook was chatting with a corporeal ghost who was taking possession of a plush dummy. A familiar Dummy who-

 

“COUSIN, COUSIN, COUSIN! You are showing off again! It drives me NUTS! NUTS! NUTS!”

 

Grillby and Sans tried to blend in with the wall as Mad Dummy bounced forward on their stand and spat cotton towards Mettaton.

**Oh very well cousin! Mettaton sighed and with a flourish of his hand finished the song.**

**Bah bah bah duh duh do**

**Mettaton turned off the HUD.**

It was now harder for Sans and Grillby to blend in with the wall-although they could now appreciate that the faux fur on the couches was both pink and glittery.

 

“Oh Maddy! We can listen to your theme song later this evening, everyone will love it!”

 

“OH NO! NO! NO! IT is just a remix of Blooks!”

 

Mad Dummy flung themselves melodramatically onto the couch.

 

OOH, IT IS NICE TO SEE YOU ALL AGAIN, ALTHOUGH I DOUBT YOU WANTED TO SEE ME.

 

Napstablook slowly and apathetically floated towards the company, his headphones still on.

 

“BLOOK! BLOOK! BLOOK! Do not say that. Everyone is super excited to see you!” Mad dummy bumped Napstablook and smiled at them. It was a bit terrifying.

 

Everyone said hello and waved enthusiastically at Napstablook. Sans waved at Napstablook,

 

“hey napstablook, it is nice to see you, ready to _snow_ outside and go skiing-”

 

“YOU! YOU! YOU! TERRIBLE jokes guy! AND the DORKY FIRE GUY! AND THE HORRIBLE CHILD THAT DISLIKES VIOLENCE! What are YOU doing here?”

 

“OH darling do behave! Grillby, Frisk, and Sans are close friends of dear Alphys and Undyne. And I think we can all agree that it has been such a long time since that silly date and *AHEM small little knife incident, er incidents.

 

J.T. was trying to figure out the best way to fight a ghost if necessary. This one was solid, so maybe he could just tackle them? But if they stopped possessing the mannequin what would he do? He made a mental note to check the closets for potential strategies…

 

Frisk nodded happily, they had been sad they had never been able to help out Mad Dummy in their last run through the Underground-but there was no helping some monsters.

 

“A LONG TIME! A LONG TIME!” Mad Dummy was fuming, while the third cousin came halfway towards them by floating through the kitchen wall.

 

“hello. my name is bl-bl-blinky.”

 

The green ghost glanced nervously at the group.

 

“n-n-nice to to-”

 

The green ghost then backed back into the kitchen and went back to making cookies.

 

“WELL! WELL! WELL! I suppose if Blinks is alright with you…I AM TOO GAAH!”

 

Mad threw themselves onto the couch in a huff and started playing with a new knife. Grillby instinctively stood in front of Sans.

 

Sans made a conscious decision to not tell any puns this trip.

 

“Oh cousin that is marvelous!”

 

Mettaton leaned forward and whispered,

 

“You have to forgive him, he just broke up with his boyfriend and is a bit upset. He’ll warm up to you in no time.”

 

Mad Dummy started stabbing the couch with his knife.

 

“MAD! We are renting that couch.” Mettaton ran to the couch

 

“COUSIN! I HAVE USELESS SEWING MAGIC IN THIS FORM! REMEMBER!”

 

Dummy looked at Mettaton, and then used his magic to sew up the couch, moving the cotton bits back inside.

 

“Oh, oh of course darling, how could I forget, you make the most lovely cross-stitches, after all? Carry on then, just fix it up once you get off.”

 

Mettaton still had the cross-stitched “Die Die Die!” with a little dummy minion hanging in his kitchen.

 

“MADJICK FORGOT TOO! WHY,WHY, WHY! FIRST boyfriend in a hundred magical years and I screw it up, Stupid, Stupid, Stupid!”

 

Mad Dummy started to violently stab the couch again, re-tearing the hole.

 

“You know you could at least use the new stylish knife I got you, with the little topaz inset.”

 

Mad dummy smiled for a second, filling Mettaton’s heart with joy.

 

“OH, OH, OH, You are right Mettaton! Right! Right! Right! Mad dummy threw the old knife (a rusty jagged looking thing) against the wall, and then popped in asparkly silver looking knife with a topaz inset at the end of the handle.

“WHAHAHAHAHAHA! Whaaah! Why! Why! Why!”

 

Sans was starting to wonder if Mettaton was really the most dramatic in the ghost family.

 

“WELL, How About me and Blooky show you your rooms and then we hit the slopes?”

 

*******

 

Mettaton and Napstablook showed everyone to their rooms, the cabin was deceptively large, but the monsters still had to share a bit as there were only four bedrooms.

 

In the first (smallest) room Mettaton and Napstablook were sharing one small bed with Mad and Blinky (thankfully Mad just slept upright and Napstablook and Blinky just floated). There was a second room with four big bunk beds that J.T., Grillby, Sans, Papyrus, Nile, Doggo, and Endogeny got to share that Papyrus dubbed the ‘friendship room’. Next, there was a kids room with two very large bunk beds and a cot Mettaton had brought in. Frisk claimed the top bunk (Frisk was best at not rolling out of bed). Nariko and Damini fit into the lower bunk and Rinan got the cot to himself for the first night, but would switch with Nariko tomorrow. Alphys, Undyne, Ugly, and Bunny were given the last bedroom, which also had two small beds and was closest to the kid’s room.

 

“I am sorry about the bed-sharing, but snuggling up in the cold is not so bad! There were not many cabins in this scenic area with more than four bedrooms, and well, this one had a good number of beds. If anyone is uncomfortable, we can always fix up the couches for a monster or two.”

 

 

Everyone was OK with sharing rooms-it was a lot of monsters to accommodate. Also no one really wanted to sleep on the stabbing couch.

 

“Do you think the k-kids will be OK?”

 

Alphys was not sure if she would be able to deal with the monsterlings in a separate bedroom.

 

Undyne smiled,

 

“They are already climbing out of their cribs on a daily basis. Let’s use this as a test to see if they are OK with their own beds.”

 

Monster Children, aged pretty similarly to human children with a few minor exceptions, mostly in that animal based monsters gained motor skills much faster. The monsterlings were approaching a year, and were starting to go far beyond toddling around and were more into running and throwing, and to Undyne and Alphy’s dismay climbing any surface that posed a challenge.

 

“Frisk, friend, can you promise to come get us if Nariko or Damini starts climbing the bunk bed OK?”

 

Frisk gave Undyne a cool thumbs up.

 

The monsters gathered back into the living room.

 

“Alright darlings! Time to hit the slopes! We might have to split up, but I have a special treat planned after dinner, so be sure to meet up at the “Eagle’s Inn” by 5:30.”

 

 

 

********************

 

The monsters walked (and trudged) through the snow. Al the former Snowdin residents happily trotted along, while Undyne wore several layers and toddled with her marshmallow children, who were so bundled up, Sans was sure they were overheating. Alphys was dressed more normally, but kept slipping and catching herself with her tail.

 

“OK, let’s each grab a set of skiis-and maybe some donuts for later!” Mettaton helped hand out a pair of skiis to everyone and, because there was no way that Undyne and Alphys were letting their monsterlings ski-big inflatable donuts for the kiddos. Frisk was going to try skiing, but J.T. grabbed a small donut, and a double 8 donut just in case. A few other monsters grabbed one as a spare-and Endogeny who was not built for skiing grabbed a few extras.

 

“So, this little gondola takes us up to the actual course! There will be lots humans skiing there, and we have a guide who will help us with the basics and show us how to put on the boots and skis. It is pretty big-and once we get skiing we might lose each other, so maybe try and stay with a buddy!”

 

Mettaton smiled at Frisk, and Sans appreciated that the guy was trying to be safer around the kid after that one dance battle.

************************************

 

Grillby, Sans, Doggo, Endogeny, Frisk, J.T., Mettaton, and Napstablook went up the lift together. Sans smiled nervously- it always took him a few seconds to get used to how up high they were on the surface, he leaned into Grillby while the elemental smiled with pure happiness at the view. Yeah, the rocking of the gondola was a bit unnerving, but it was so romantic to hold Grillby in his-

 

Endogeny’s tail flopped into Sans’ mouth as the dog(s) started to wag their tail in excitement.

 

Mettaton took note and moved to the other side of the gondola before performing a small theatric stumble.

 

“Oh! GASP! These heights are so nerve-wracking! Oh I am just horrible with heights” Mettaton swooned into J.T.

 

Napstablook looked up at Mettaton blankly,

 

“OHHHH… METTATON, DO NOT BE SCARED. REMEMBER, YOU CAN JUST FLOAT THROUUUGH IT IF WORSE COME TO WORSE…OOH.”

 

Napstablook phased in and out of the gondola while Sans did his best not to snicker. Endogeny then wagged their tail into Sans again, which thankfully hid the laugh.

 

Mettaton stood up sighing,

 

“Yes, um, thanks Blooky darling, I feel much better now.”

 

********************

Papyrus was holding Nile veeeery tightly as they rode the gondola up on a wire.

 

A tiny metal wire made by humans.

 

A tiny metal wire that had probably not been tested on big brawny skeletons.

 

How was this more terrifying than the car incident? Papyrus felt like he just was not in control.

 

On the other hand, Rinan, Damini, and Nariko ran around back and forth in the gondola having the time of their tiny monsterling lives, while Undyne chased them around, and pointed out things first on one side then another. Even worse Alphys, usually the voice of reason, seemed to be loving it, taking pictures with her new camera.

 

“See the mountain kids?”

 

“TAWL TAWL!”

 

“Oh and over here is a cool bird! I think it is an eagle, say eagle? EAG-EL?”

 

“EEEG! EEEG!”

 

“O-ooh. L-l-let me get a picture of it! Ahh so many good memories!”Alphys practically barreled over Papyrus to attempt to photograph the Eagle.

 

Undyne lifted little Rinan up so he could see the eagle, while Narkiko climbed up Papyrus and Damini used her tail to get some height advantage. The gondola leaned slightly.

 

“C-Come on now kids, behave! You have to save some energy for skiing!”

 

Finally, Alphys was stepping in!

 

Nariko jumped off Papyrus causing a huge shake.

 

Alphys used her tail to stabilize herself while scolding Nariko.

 

 

Papyrus hugged Nile very tightly.

 

 

_“OH PAPYRUS THIS IS SO ROMANTIC! BUT YOU CAN LET GO JUST A BIT SILLY, THE KIDS ARE RIGHT HERE! HEE HEE.”_

Papyrus reluctantly loosened his grip on Nile.

 

Alphys smiled,

 

“I-it is fine, heh-heh, we don’t mind a bit o-of P.D.A.”

 

Undyne took the opportunity to jump into Alphys’ arms causing the gondola to lumber slightly. Alphys disapproved as the monsterlings used that as an excuse to keep jumping about, but still took pictures of them in the gondola.

 

“WELL IF IT IS FINE WITH THEM!” Papyrus clung to Nile to the point where she might have started to wonder if he had part spider ancestry.

 

*********

 

Mad, Blinky, Bunny, and Ugly had a relaxing and scenic trip, where Mad pleasantly described his favorite hot teas to have on chilly days.

 

“REALLY! REALLY REALLY! A good chamomile is the ONLY thing that can calm me down sometimes!”

 

“Yes, I started to try and drink teas recently, Lady T-er she does not like ‘Queen Toriel’-suggested this interesting herbal mix- special for me with dried hops in it-seems to work for my magic…”

 

“Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! I have to ask Tori for some suggestions, she is the best!”

 

Blinky turned attentively as Bunny described this tea concoction.

 

Ugly chimed in,

 

“Of course, I love a nice cuppa, but after we hit the slopes, I hear that the ski resort lodge has real nice warm drinks.”

 

***************

 

Finally the monsters reached the resort. Wow.

 

Grillby and Sans had been to Los Vegas, but most of the monsters had not been to any luxury locations on the surface. Still this place had a completely different feel.

 

At first glance the log cabins formed a little village, all covered in snow reminiscent of Snowdin, cozy and warm. But a second glance revealed a more commercial venture. Bright yellow lights from inside the houses gave off a warm gleam that reflected in the snow and glimmered into the gift shop window displays, advertising snowboards, skis, clothing, beer, and even a shop selling jewelry.

 

Music played at each cabin, and warm heated rooms enticed skiers inside.

 

Thankfully Mettaton walked them right past all the shops, and right up to his instructor.

 

“Hello and welcome! Is this all your first time skiing?”

 

The instructor helped them all with the basics-keep the skis like a pizza slice to slow down and like a french fry to go fast. Beginners should stick to those tricks and just practice moving around in the ski gear. The more advanced step was then to learn to try and curve their skis for better movement. Papyrus was insistent that he would become an advanced skier by the end of the day.

 

After the verbal instructions the monsters watched really stupid and overly dramatic safety video-

 

Sans poked Grillby in the stomach.

 

“…Sans, remember horsing around is not being Ski-safe! You could lose all your fingers...”

 

Grillby tickled Sans back under the chin.

 

“grillby, tickling is not being ski-safe! you could cause an avalanche with laughter!”

 

Sans used gravity magic to float Grillby up for a second.

 

Grillby giggled,

 

“…Sans gravity magic is no-”

 

“SANS SKELETON, GRAVITY MAGIC IS NOT SKI-SAFE! STOP ENDANGERING GRILLBY!”

 

Papyrus shouted so loudly that Grillby and Sans actually tripped in their skis.

 

Papyrus was really hung up about the part of the video where a man was horsing around, kicked a rock, and then tripped and broke both legs and an arm.

 

“relax paps, skelemental love is ski-safe. grillbz and i promise to tone it down once we hit the bunny slopes, and be behaved and _n-ice._ we aren’t gonna cause any problems. _snow_ don’t worry.”

 

“YOUR PUNS ARE AS AWFUL AS YOUR ADHERANCE TO SKI SAFETY SANS, NYEH HEH HEH!”

 

The instructor turned away from Bunny and Nile, and addressed Papyrus,

 

“Now now, I know you are excited, but remember shouting is not ski-safe! Let’s head to the slopes now fellas!”

 

Grillby and Sans laughed their heads off the second the instructor skied away while Papyrus’s eyebrows did a dance of frustration.


	59. Chapter 59

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang hits the ski slopes and is treated to a fancy dinner with Mettaton! The day was a blast, but Mettaton has one more trick up his sleeve :D

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading! After the last couple weeks in lab, I wish I could take a vacation! Trying to publish a paper IRL, but needing to finish a butt-ton of experiments.

In Grillby’s opinion the bunny slopes should have been renamed to the final boss Asgore King of all Monsters slopes- no offense to Bunny.

 

In short none of the monsters were initially born to ski. Mettaton, who had been skiing ~for three days now~ had the form correct. He balanced himself on the skis, flipped his robo-hair perfectly, used the sticks to propel with a pizza French fry combination, and-slowly slid down the hill at a snail’s pace.

 

“Oh, Darlings don’t I just look fabulous? Alphys feel free to take some snapshots!”

 

Alphys obliged-she was planning on getting at least one picture of every monster skiing for a slideshow anyway, and Mettaton did have the look down.

 

The weight of Mettaton’s metal body was a bit much, and the robot had to settle for a slow drift downward. Of course this allowed the superstar to pose dramatically with each little curve and bump, honestly, it still looked fun.

 

Next Undyne and Alphys charged forward eager to kick snow’s butt!!! (Well Alphys did more of a nervous teeter after handing her camera to Papyrus).

 

Undyne immediately sped down going with the French fry method the entre way.

 

“WATCH out snow here comes Undyne!”

 

“Oh Darling, that type of skiing leave no room at all for posing!”

 

Undyne continued to impressively whizz around bends, do small jumps, and lean side to side on the skis to build speed, going between flags the whole way. It was quite impressive until-

 

“Woah there! Slow down a bit you are going to crash!” The instructor suddenly panicked.

 

Undyne did a trick where she jumped off the last slope, and then tuned her hips around to give a thumbs up-

 

Watch out Undyne here comes snow.

 

Undyne crashed into a wooden fence at the very end of the trail.

 

 

The snow instructor’s face went white-he picked up a cell phone ready to dial emergency services, until Undyne jumped up and ran back shouting,

 

“THAT was amazing! YEAH! Come on Alphys you’ll love it. Did you get a pic of that sweet jump Papyrus?”

 

“C-C-c-coming…Right behind you.” The now relieved instructor switched over to helping a nervous Alphys inch toward the tiny peak.

 

As Undyne was halfway back Alphys started her descent. The lizard monster balanced on her skis-with her tail acting as a counterweight. She inched forward with the pizza method, and slowly-slowly went down the slope, occasionally sticking her tail in the snow to steer and slow herself to a snail’s pace.

 

“Excellent Alphys! Now you just have to pose!”

 

Alphys made a terrified face.

 

“Ooh! Yes darling, very fierce! Get that shot Papyrus!”

 

Papyrus stopped taking a picture of Nile in her ski outfit and took a picture of Alphys.

 

“Yaa! Yaah Yamm! Yamm!” The kids cheered Alphys on. Alphys heard this and tried to go a little faster.

 

Alphys made it halfway down the hill, before completely stopping herself.

 

“Yaa! Yaah Yamm! Yamm!”

 

Alphys sighed and pushed off again, this time trying not to use her tail. She wobbled back and forth-but after letting go a bit straightened out and even picked up some speed! She made it to the bottom,

 

“W-wow, you know once you let go a bit it is not b-b-bad at all! Thanks kids!” Alphys hugged the monsterlings.

 

***

 

Mad Dummy, Nabstablook, and Blinky did not really get the point of skiing.

 

Mad Dummy summoned several dummy minions made of cloth.

 

“GO! GO! GO! My dummies, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

 

Little dummy minions on little cloth skis swarmed down the slopes to everyone’s horror and Mad’s delight. The tiny minions reached the end, flawlessly banking every turn, and then scrambled up the slopes.

 

“FASTER, FASTER FASTER! Yes, excellent!”

 

Mad kicked a Dummy minion halfway down the slope.

 

Napstablook decided not to possess the dummy that Mad had made him so he could go corporeal and ski.

 

I AM JUST NOT FEELING IT NOW, SORRY.

 

Napstablook floated above Papyrus making the air all cold, tingly, and musical.

 

Blinky possessed the spare dummy and Mettaton put the skis on it with a bit of finagling.

 

“Ok, now Blinky love, just give it a push.”

 

Blinky did not move.

 

Mettaton gave them a push.

 

Blinky made it about ten feet before falling on her side and then sliding the rest of the way immobile.

 

“Amazing darling! You make it look so effortless.”

 

Blinky blushed profusely and after summoning the effort to hop up the hill, de-possessed the dummy and floated towards the bar.

 

“Oh, she will be back!” Mettaton smiled. She would not be back.

 

Papyrus, Nile, Doggo, and Ugly went down the slopes just fine, not to fast, not to slow. Nile was wobbling a lot, and Ugly fell twice, but they were having a blast.

 

 _“AHH THIS SNOW IS SO FUN AND FLUFFY!”_ Nile had not been allowed to go to Snowdin, so when she was not skiing she was admiring the snow.

 

Bunny-seemed to be a natural. The ski instructor beamed as she controlled the skis perfectly and made it to the bottom of the slope with ease. The rabbit monster got lots of applause.

 

“Keep it up and I’ll give you a pass for the beginner slopes up ahead!”

 

Next Grillby stepped up to ski, well sloshed up to ski. He had pretty good temperature control, but he always emitted a little heat. Now that he had been wearing the skis for ten minutes in line, they were pleasantly warm-which meant warm enough to melt the snow under him.

 

He had been worried about this. The elemental attempted to slide down the hill, but he turned the exit area into mud.... The instructor rushed to fill in the spot with some fresh snow and a shovel, but it melted again.

 

“Umm…Sir, I am sorry but, is there a way for you to um, not melt the snow?.”

 

Grillby sighed and lowered his flames as much as possible. This might not work.

 

Sans walked up and tapped the instructor’s arm and whispered something.

 

“hey grillbz, try pushing off one more time, it looks like there was just a rock in the way.”

 

Sans pretended to pick up a rock in front of the ski.

 

“ok, now push off!” The instructor smiled.

 

Grillby pushed and Sans took over the control of the skis, and glided Grillby down the slope at a normal pace, Grillby looked happy, and even though he realized Sans was doing it halfway through, was still into it, leaning with the slopes, and having fun. Grillby took off the skis at the bottom of the hill, and blew Sans a kiss- Heh, he loved Sans.

 

The monsters clapped for Grillby!

 

 

Sans decided to hurry down and meet the fire monster, and started down the hill the good old-fashioned way, meaning no gravity magic. The monsters were expecting him to use it…but well… just because Sans had never excelled at sports did not mean he could not do this. Also he really wanted to show off a bit for Grillby.

 

He pushed off- just skeleton and snow…and…

 

It was easy! Heh, maybe Paps was right about the whole sports things, just relax. Sans just had to widen the sticks into a cone shape, and then fluctuate it a bit with the straight legs.

 

Heh, heh, he was a natural.

 

Sans sped up and did a little jump over the first hill. Wow this was fun. The monsters cheered. Grillby let out a whistle (*yes!*).

 

He went down the second bump with another small hop in the skis.

 

*pop

 

Huh was that a twig?

 

Eh, the monsters were cheering-but woah, was something different, he was suddenly going down quick!

 

He was still somehow turning and wobbling back and forth?

 

What the heck both his legs were pointed but…

 

 _OH asgore. oh mother of asgore. his foot had detached. how embarrassing._ _oh my asgore, grillby was watching._

 

And now he was turning towards a tree. The instructor shouted something. Mettaton shouted something. Grillby shouted something. The tree was right in front of him.

 

_i am going to die because i ran into a tree. here lies sans the bony pancake._

_oh, heh, heh, wait a minute._

 

**Whoosh**

 

He short cutted to the top of the hill.

 

 

“heh sorry for the scare forgot i could do that for a second.”

 

Grillby puffed up the rest of the hill, stopping to pick up Sans’ foot.

 

“heh, looks like i am a little out of shape.”

 

“…Don’t scare me like that Sans!…”

 

The two hugged.

 

Mettaton was fake crying,

 

“Oh Sans and Grillby darling, that was so emotional.” Mettaton took out a large handkerchief and pretended to dab their eyes.

 

The poor bedraggled instructor was at this point less emotional. They handed Sans and Grillby inner tubes, which the pair happily took.

 

****

No more skiing.

 

Grillby and Sans stuck around to watch Frisk try the slopes. J.T. reluctantly folded his arms and stood to the side as Frisk approached the top of the hill. Despite Mettaton’s offer J.T. would not be skiing today, just watching. Frisk waddled up to the top of the slope. J.T. had made sure the kid had dressed in proper snow gear today, and it made Sans feel bad that Frisk had been wandering though Snowdin in just shorts. He had not known enough about humans at the time, but he still felt kind of bad for not picking up on the fact that poor Frisk had been shivering in their shoes.

 

Well, it was nice to see Frisk smiling in the snow. They looked like they had some difficulty at first, but with determination they carefully skied downward, and even managed to go through the flags!

 

The monsters cheered their friend on!

 

After a bit more practice it was time to split up.

 

Papyrus, Nile, Mettaton, Doggo-and to everyone’s surprise-Alphys were starting to get the hang of skiing and decided to try and do a run in the beginner slopes further up the mountain.

 

The ski instructor gave them the go-ahead, and recommended a few starter courses. They were all still pretty slow, but they had basic steering and speed down.

 

Undyne wanted to go to the advanced courses, but on her third time down the hill she had managed to tear a fin and bruise an arm.

 

“Oh honey, I got this!”

 

Bunny rushed to her, and held her arm gently. The rabbit monster let out a few pulses of healing magic, and the bruise lessened. Next she carefully ran her paw over Undyne’s torn fin. Undyne let out a tiny howl of pain, but it did not last long as Bunny quickly healed the tissue.

 

“Woah, Bunny, that was so quick!”

 

“Thanks! Lady T has been helping me get better at healing. And she is so smart, too! Did you know, amphibian, fish, and reptile monsters actually have an amazing capacity for regeneration, mammalian monsters, less so- some science thing about not forming blastemas. Heck, as a fish monster we can even help you regrow an arm!”

 

“P-p-please do not tempt her!” Alphys was happy the arm was fixed but the last thing Undyne needed was encouragement for reckless behavior.

 

“Eh, do not worry Alphys, I think I am gonna watch the kids for the rest of the afternoon, you have fun skiing.”

 

Alphys gave the kids a hug goodbye for a bit, and then had to pry Damini off of her gently as the small water snake-like monster

 

Bunny, Ugly, Mad Dummy, and Blinky snuck off to the bar for a few drinks. There was a band in the bar, playing some nice jazz, and some sort of human ice sport game on the TV. It involved chasing a little rubber disc around on the ice, Endogeny would have loved it.

 

“You wanna come to the bar, you two, Woof?” Doggo had barely gotten to hang out with Grillby and Sans and wanted to get into some trouble at the bar.

 

Mad Dummy started conjuring their knife out.

 

“…Doggo…I’m off this week…let me stay out of the bar for a few more hours…”

 

Doggo nodded,

 

“Woof! Haha OK, you two lovebirds have fun.”

***********************************************

The rest of the monsters decided to try snow tubing, which Sans realized was basically sledding, but with less steering. It also looked like it required a lot less physical fitness and effort-Sans was so, so down for this.

 

There were a bunch of hills and most humans seemed to be skiing, so the monsters easily found one that was empty, except for the attendant.

 

Also, Undyne looked like she appreciated the help with monsterling watching. Grillby held Damini’s hand, Undyne watched Rinan, and Endogeny and Sans both watched Nariko (honestly the more Monsters keeping an eye on Nariko the better).

 

The three monsterling wanted to go first, and then Frisk was next youngest.

 

Sans had also been given Alphys’ camera to take pictures of the monsterlings having fun in the snow.

 

Undyne handed Rinan a little purple inner tube, but the monsterling froze at the top of the Hill.

 

“Hey, Rinan, you feeling OK, you don’t have to do it, if you don’t want to!”

 

Rinan hugged Undyne’s leg.

 

“That’s OK, Sport! Let just go over here and cheer your sister on.

 

Nariko was already practically pulling Sans down the slope with her as he held her hand for Undyne.

 

“nnnn, wi Bu!”

 

“Oh, you want to go with me?”

 

Rinan nodded his head furiously.

 

“ya!”

 

“Wait! You want to go with me?”

 

“Blue! Blue Yom! Blue Mom!”

 

Undyne’s eyes practically filled with tears.

 

 

“Oh my Asgore, you just said your first real word! Blue mom! Alphys is going to be so jealous! AHHHHH!”

 

Undyne gave Rinan a big hug, and then practically danced to the double donut tube and carefully sat Rinan into the front donut, while holding him tightly. Sans took lots of pictures.

 

The little monsterling leaned into Undyne as the attendant gave them a small push down the hill.

 

“weeeeeeee!” Rinan shouted happily.

 

Undyne, was so happy she forgot to shout down the hill.

 

*****

 

 

Endogeny, and Nariko were starting off in the little inner tube section next to the bunny slopes. Endogeny was a combination of many dog parents, and was sure to give Nariko a comforting couple of licks before drifting down the slope with the tiny monsterling in a big comfy inner tube.

 

“GRAAAAAA!”

 

“Awoooooooo!”

 

Damini, like Rinan, was less enthused about going down, and while she loved Grillby, also ran over to “blue mom” to go down with her.

 

Frisk decided they were a big kid who could go down themself, since they had skied without any help. Everyone agreed Frisk was a big kid who could do this, and once that was settled, Frisk still wanted J.T. to come with them.

 

J.T. insisted his job was to keep watch and guard Frisk, but after only a minute of whining and hand pulling J.T. finally agreed to go down the slopes, the guy looked oddly uncomfortable crammed into the double donut, and screamed down the hill.

 

Still, J.T. seemed happy that Frisk was smiling at the bottom of the hill. Still, the guard insisted that once was enough for him.

 

After Rinan and Damini both got to ride with mom, Nariko also demanded to only go down with Undyne. This process unfairly skewed the number of rides in Undyne’s favor, but also meant that Sans and Grillby got to ride together and Endogeny got a double donut to themselves.

 

The monsters and Frisk took turns going down the inner tubes enjoying the near effortless slide down the scenic hill with pine trees in the distance. Frisk wanted a ride with each monster, as well, and Sans tried to show off with the last bit of gravity magic left in him with a super big jump at the end. Frisk loved it!

 

 

After a while, Nabstablook floated on by, and joined monsters in their donuts as they slid down. The attendant was against it at first, but since Napstablook was weightless, it was deemed OK.

 

 

The tubing very enjoyable, so even though skiing was a bust, the monsters enjoyed their afternoon. Grillby held Sans hand for one last slide down the hill as the sun set. He leaned back into the tube, with Sans laying his head on his stomach. Sans closed his eye sockets and just enjoyed the warm bask of the elemental while sliding down. The pair tried to dally up the hill, but the other monsters rushed them a bit ,after a day of snow-fun, every monster was hungry!

 

 

*****

 

Mettaton, who was in a very good mood after conquering an amateur level slope with Papyrus, had all the monsters gather for a delicious warm meal in the warm cabin restaurant.

 

“I hope you do not mind, but I asked for the chef’s special sampler dinner for everyone! It is Surf and turf-Fresh lobster with caviar, filet mignon, roasted asparagus with a side, and a side of super fine garlic mashed potatoes. And for Frisky, Napstablook, Blinky, and Bunny, darling, I hear you are vegetarian, so instead you have the potatoes, asparagus, candied walnut and cranberry salad with dandelion vinaigrette, and their famous homemade sesame crusted bread. And for the kids-macaroni with little bits of crab in it! It is fancy and kid-friendly! Of course, it is very expensive, BUT delicious, and I know Undyne loves seafood!”

 

Frisk would eat fish, chicken, and snails, but had lost their appetite for any sort of red meat dish recently. They had never tried lobster before, and kind of wanted to try a nibble, but the salad looked really good.

 

Now ghosts could taste and eat, they just magically absorbed the food like skeletons and used the food as magical fuel, but Napstablook and Blinky had “Ethereal taste” meaning they could not taste food super well. Blinky could taste “hot flavors,” meaning anything that was very hot, thus their love of tea and hot cookies. Napstablook had a more severe case, so they only could taste very strong flavors like coffee, chocolate, and very spiced foods. Thus, neither really liked eating meat, as it seemed rather wasteful if they could not even appreciate its flavor.

 

Bunny was a strict vegetarian, she could technically eat meat… but still she preferred vegetables.

 

Some of the other monsters were not huge meat eaters…For example, Sans and Papyrus mostly stuck to the occasional hamburger at Grillby’s or meatballs in pasta, but wanted to try the new surface foods out at least once.

 

Each carefully constructed plate was laid out in front of them. The small piece of steak was covered in some sort of sauce with a tiny herb arranged around it and the lobster tail sitting to the side, basking in some sort of lettuce. Grillby was not sure how they mashed their potatoes so fine, but they looked more silky ad liquid than mashed. The asparagus was drizzled in some vinaigrette and smelled of lemon.

 

The waiter then put tiny bibs on all of them.

 

“UH, METTATON, I AM QUITE GOOD AT NOT SPILLING FOOD ON MYSELF.”

 

“Darling, it is just a human custom. You always wear these while eating lobster.”

 

“OH-OH OF COURSE, I KNEW THAT!” Papyrus pulled on the little bib thing, while Nile snickered.

 

“I guess it prevents getting shell on yourself, PRETTY COOL!” Undyne loved messy food.

 

Still, the fish monster looked skeptically at the lobster as Alphys took a shot of everyone with their fancy bibs and plates. It looked a bit like cave shrimp. She smelled it. It smelled like shrimp…and butter. Hmm.

 

“So do you just crack it open?” Undyne picked it up by the tail and dangled it above her plate.

 

Mettaton giggled,

 

“Oh-well basically yes darling, but it not that simple. Now as you can see they made a little cut for you down the middle so you can delicately-”

 

Undyne found the little crack and proceeded to rip the lobster in half and bite into it with her rows of sharp teeth.

 

CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP.

 

“Mehhaton! Ou are da’ best!” Undyne stuffed her face.

 

Mettaton face-palmed. He did not know what he was expecting.

 

“Ooh da’ shell isn’ alf bad.” Undyne chewed on the tail with relish.

 

 _“OH MY GOODNESS, I DO NOT KNOW IF I CAN EAT THAT…”_ Nile looked a bit repulsed as bits of lobster tail fell onto Undyne’s plate.

“Uh, well normally, you just carefully crack it open with these little things and then use this tiny fork to eat it. It is considered a very posh food to eat.”

 

J.T. demonstrated proper lobster eating etiquette, and carefully dipped a small piece in butter before politely chewing it.

 

Mettaton sighed with relief.

 

“YES-thank you for the very apt demonstration J.T. Now everyone should just eat their lobster elegantly. Lobster is a food that is enjoyed by those with a sophisticated palate.”

 

The monsters proceeded to try the food.

 

Ugly, who had already prepared to gorge in like Undyne, caught Bunny’s eye, and attempted to use his fins to carefully pull little bits of food with his fork. Bunny nodded in approval and she carefully crunched on her salad.

Mad took everyone aback by insisting he use his own knife to cut the filet mignon and asparagus. Napstablook and Blinky enjoyed the garlic-mashed potatoes and hot sesame buns immensely, and politely ate the salad and asparagus.

 

Doggo and Endogeny picked at the lobster with their tiny knives and forks, and handed them off to Undyne to devour. They then moved to the filet mignon, and after giving up on using the silverware, stuck their muzzles into it to eat.

 

“Woof! This is…so…so Good!...Wow! Mettaton, you should make the MTT steaks out f whatever these are from.”

 

Mettaton nodded, the MTT steaks definitely needed an upgrade, but also more glitter.

 

Sans felt a bit silly eating the lobster with the tiny fork and bib, but wanted to look like he appreciated fine food with Grillby. He looked up at Papyrus, who had managed to get a nice piece of the shellfish and was feeding it to Nile romantically while Alphys took pictures.

 

Dang it. Had Grillby noticed?

 

Grillby was looking at them. Ok-Sans got a piece of fish and tapped Grillby on the shoulder, Grillby turned around quickly with his whole body- causing his hand to sizzle into the lobster.

 

The two snickered as Alphys caught the moment.

 

“…Still romantic!... But let’s just eat our own food, Sans?...”

 

The rest of the monsters enjoyed their meals-Grillby liked how everything tasted, although he would never add any of this to his restaurant menu-it was all too rich and fussy.

 

Mettaton finished off the meal with dessert- tiramisu with a little extra Kahlua, and for the kids hot fudge sundaes.

 

Bunny and Napstablook were in heaven, while Papyrus passed the boosy tiramisu for a sundae.

 

 

Every monster was stuffed!

 

****

 

“Now that we are all fed, I have one last special treat for everyone! Look under your chairs!”

 

Every monster looked under their chairs to find a thin light box that was wrapped in gold colored wrapping paper. Sans shook it-it felt like it had clothes in it. Oh Asgore.

 

“O-oh Mettaton! The trip is-is nice enough, you did not have to get us anything!”

 

“Yes, Yes, Yes! The trip was nice enough cousin!”

 

Mettaton pouted,

 

“Oh, what is the point of making money if you can’t spend it on friends? It is fine! Enjoy! Go ahead and open it darlings, and if you feel bad, I will skip Gyftmas for you next year.”

 

Mettaton was so excited that they were buzzing and beeping a bit.

 

The monsters opened up the mysterious presents.

 

Mettaton purchased everyone (even Grillby) a black or gold colored custom swimsuit.

 

“O-O-Oh my!” Alphys pulled out a black one piece with a plunging neckline and custom-made tail, with a little sheer shirt on the bottom that Mettaton had clearly added for his friend.

 

“I know they might be a bit less modest than some of you are used too, but I just had to get ones that would be flattering on you! And of course, it is so difficult to find a modest one piece in Milan.”

 

The tall bodyguard almost stuttered,

 

“How did you get our measurements?”

 

J.T. really wanted to know how this was possible.

 

“Oh, huh, I just asked Undyne, or Papyrus, or I suppose in in your case Toriel, a few weeks ago, did you wonder why?”

 

“WAIT-THAT WAS WHY YOU NEEDED SANS AND GRILLBY’S SIZES?”

 

“uh, bro how did you know-”

 

“I JUST LIKE DOING THE LAUNDRY OK!”

 

Despite the decrease in modesty, the swimsuits really did fit each monster’s personality.

 

Bunny had a gold colored bikini, with complex zig zag embellishments across the top. Nile had a one piece, with intricate hexagons cut out of the side in a cool puzzle sort of look befitting of a mummy. Doggo had absolutely no problem wearing a gold speedo with little white studs on it, while Papyrus looked like he was struggling to pretend he did not secretly like the black and gold tiger striped speedo Mettaton had picked out.

 

“…These…really do not leave much to the imagination…” Grillby turned his swimsuit around. He and Sans had matching black swim suits, with gold trim. It was the sort of square cut that Papyrus would normally go for.

 

“Oh but darling the cut suits you so well, and did you knew it was made by a famous Italian designer? Sans, don’t you think it will look good on Grillby?”

 

Sans attempted to stay composed as he nodded his head up and down.

 

“it will look good on grillbz, not so sure about me but-”

 

“…No! Sans you are so hot! Give it a try…”

 

Sans turned a bright blushing shade of blue. Mettaton tried his best not to smile with glee as his little plan worked.

 

Undyne inspected the cool sporty two piece Mettaton had given her, she loved it, but…

 

“Uh, so these are such lovely swimsuits Mettaton, we will, um, have to go to the beach together once it warms up!”

 

Mettaton smiled like an anime villain-the true plan was about to be revealed,

 

“Darlings, Darlings, Darlings, These swim suits are too fancy for the beach, they would get torn up. No, no, these are for the hot tub! I reserved the hot tub and sauna area for us tonight.” Mettaton did a little twirl.

 

 

“…Hey what is a hot tub?...” Grillby, despite being a man made of fire, would prefer a nice warm lava bath if such a thing existed.

 

Mettaton frowned,

 

“Well, unfortunately darling it is a bath of hot water to relax in-rather like those hot springs Alphys dear is so fond of-but fear not! I am not so insensitive as to leave out your elemental needs! I hope you do not mind, but I got you and Sans a relaxing massage and spa treatment instead.”

 

Sans and Grillby looked nervously at each other. A massage? Spa treatment?

 

 

OOH, I LOVE RELAXING, OOOOH. BUT COUSIN I CAN MAKE MY OWN SWIMSUIT.

 

It was true that Napstablook did not really need a swimsuit. Instead the ghost materialized a bathing cap on top of his head and an old fashioned striped bathing costume.

 

“Blooky! Those have been out of fashion for at least one hundred years!”

 

“YES, YES, YES! BLOOK I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! EHEHEHEHE! ALSO cousin, Hot water makes me smell like a soaked rag, can I get a massage instead?” Mad Dummy hopped about furiously and ghosted up a matching bathing costume. Blinky followed suit. Mettaton tried not to sigh disappointedly at the costume change, but nodded,

 

“No problem Mad, I think the spa treatment will be great for you. And of course if anyone else wants the spa package instead of the hot tub and sauna time, it is fine.”

 

“Woof, I am gonna spare you the wet hot dog smell and get a massage.” Doggo could absolutely not pass up the opportunity for what in his mind was petting. Endogeny followed suit.

 

***


End file.
